According to the lawsuit, the Airbnb host listed his Huntsville apartment as “not suitable for children and infants” on Airbnb’s website. — Photo by Oberon Copeland @veryinformed.com on Unsplash
An Airbnb host wouldn’t let a mother rent his apartment when she needed a temporary place for her and her three children to live, according to a new lawsuit filed by the Justice Department.
He declined the woman’s rental request, then told her his property in Huntsville, Alabama, was “not suitable for kids” after she requested his rental a second time, according to a lawsuit filed by the Justice Department.
The woman hoped to live in the apartment with her three children for several months in 2020 before they moved to Hawaii, where her husband relocated for a new job after the couple sold their home in Huntsville, according to the complaint. Huntsville is about a 100 mile-drive northeast from Birmingham.
When she replied to the Airbnb host, the complaint says she told him her children were ages 9, 11 and 14 and said: “I would understand if they were little but all they do is play video games. You do know that it is illegal to discriminate against people with children.”
The host never answered, according to the complaint.
After the woman contacted Airbnb support for help and reported that she was discriminated against, an employee told her that certain listings don’t allow children, depending on the host, the complaint says.
The employee explained that Airbnb hosts have the authority to decide whether their listings are suitable for children, then told her “it would be best” if she found a new listing, according to the complaint.
Now, the Justice Department is suing Airbnb, the Airbnb host and his apartment building in Huntsville, accusing the parties of discriminating against the family based on their familial status, the complaint shows. The case was filed in federal court in San Francisco, where Airbnb is headquartered.
An Airbnb spokesperson told McClatchy News on Jan 14 that the company has a nondiscrimination policy that prevents discrimination based on familial status and other protected characteristics. The company didn’t comment on the lawsuit.
McClatchy News was unable to immediately reach the Airbnb host, who lives in Santa Monica, for comment.
According to the lawsuit, the Airbnb host listed his Huntsville apartment as “not suitable for children and infants” on Airbnb’s website.
After he refused to rent his apartment to the mother and her children, their plans to move to Hawaii fell through, according to the complaint.
The complaint says the woman preferred to stay in Huntsville before moving to Hawaii because she “wanted their children to maintain continuity of their educational and social activities as much as possible...”
After the Airbnb host turned her away, she was unable to find a place to live in Huntsville, according to the complaint.
Instead, she found housing through a family friend that was about an hour’s drive away from the city, the complaint says.
Despite the distance, the woman tried to keep her children involved in the Huntsville community and “drove her oldest son to football practice near Huntsville each day, waited for him to finish and then drove home,” the complaint says.
The woman and her family ultimately felt isolated from Huntsville, according to the complaint.
The distress caused by the isolation resulted in the woman’s husband leaving his job in Hawaii and returning to his old job in Huntsville, where he made thousands of dollars less, the complaint says.
By leaving Hawaii, he “missed out on a promotion” and had to pay for moving costs, including shipping a new car to Alabama, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit accuses Airbnb and the Airbnb host of violating the Fair Housing Act.
Through the lawsuit, the Justice Department is asking the court to prevent Airbnb and the Airbnb host from discriminating against individuals based on their race, colour, religion, sex, familial status or national origin.
The lawsuit seeks to award the family an unspecified amount in damages. – The News Tribune/Tribune News Service