In early October, the Equal Rights Center (ERC) announced the resolution of claims against Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc., and Mid-America Apartments, L.P. (MAA) that its exclusion of housing applicants with certain criminal records discriminated against such individuals on the basis of race and national origin. Specifically, the lawsuit claimed that MAA’s criminal records screening policy had an illegal and disproportionate effect on African American and Latino applicants in violation of the Fair Housing Act. MAA is required to immediately adopt a criminal background screening policy that individually assesses applicants with criminal convictions and also is prohibited from considering the arrests or pending charges, expunged convictions, and convictions reversed on appeal or where a new trial has been ordered but not held.
