FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          CR
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30, 1997                          (202) 616-2765
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888
                                 
    DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE REACHES $450,000 SETTLEMENT WITH TWO 
            SUBURBAN CHICAGO APARTMENT COMPLEXES

     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The owners and managers of two suburban
Chicago apartment complexes who refused to rent to African
Americans will pay $450,000 under an agreement reached today with
the Department of Justice.  
 
     Today's settlement, filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago,
resolves a November 1996 Justice Department lawsuit alleging that
the owners and managers of Forest Hills Apartments, in Oak
Forest, and Commercial Avenue Apartments, in South Chicago
Heights, violated the Fair Housing Act by treating prospective
African American tenants less favorably than whites.

     A private action, brought by the South Suburban Housing
Center, has also been resolved by today's agreement.

     "Every American deserves a fair chance at finding a place to
call home, regardless of the color of his or her skin," said
Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Isabelle Katz
Pinzler.   

     Pinzler noted that the agreement stems from the Justice
Department's nationwide fair housing testing program.  Under this
program, trained teams of African American and white testers help
detect discrimination by posing as prospective tenants and
inquiring about the availability of rental units.  Afterwards,
the investigators compare the way they were treated.

     Under the settlement, owners Ronald Glas, David Kozak, and
Gary Kozak and their managers have agreed to:

     +    no longer engage in discriminatory rental practices;
     +    pay $400,000 in damages to individual victims of the
          discrimination and the South Suburban Housing Center;  
     +    publicize the nondiscrimination rental policy;
     +    keep records and submit reports of rental activities to
          the private plaintiffs and the Justice Department; and,
     +    pay a penalty of $50,000 to the U.S. government.

     A portion of the damages paid by the defendants will be in
the form of rent credits.  These credits, totaling $150,000, will
allow qualified individuals to obtain apartments either rent-free
or at reduced rates at any of the five Chicago area complexes
owned by the defendants.

     "The use of rent credits is innovative in that it provides a
practical means to accomplish the Fair Housing Act's primary goal
of creating a truly open housing market," said James B. Burns,
U.S. Attorney in Chicago. 

     The discrimination was discovered after teams of black and
white testers posing as prospective tenants inquired about
renting at the two complexes.  The managers refused to rent to
the African Americans testers by telling them that no apartments
were available for the time that they requested or offered them
apartments on less favorable terms than the white testers. 

     The 160-unit Forest Hills Apartment complex is located at
5049 West 159th Street in Oak Forest, and the Commercial Avenue
Apartments, consisting of 62 units, at 3351 Commercial Avenue in
South Chicago Heights.

     Individuals who believe that they may have been the victims
of housing discrimination at either the Forest Hills or the
Commercial Avenue Apartments should call the United States
Attorney's Office at 312-353-1857, the Housing Section of the
Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department at 1-800-896-7743,
or the South Suburban Housing Center at 708-957-4674.
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