Oklahoma landlord to pay $52,000 for violating fair housing laws Clio

The owners of an Oklahoma City residential rental property have agreed to pay $52,500 to resolve a lawsuit alleging they violated the Fair Housing Act by refusing to rent a one-bedroom apartment to a single mother after learning she would live with her children, the Justice Department announced.

Under the settlement, the defendants must pay $52,500 to the woman who was denied the apartment. The defendants must also implement non-discrimination policies and practices at The Vintage in Mesta Park and receive training to prevent future discrimination, including family status discrimination.

The department’s complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma in August 2025, said that in July 2022, a woman inquired about renting a one-bedroom unit at The Vintage, the defendant’s 36-unit apartment complex in Mesta Park.

The apartment was close to her work and across the street from a school where she hoped to send her then three-year-old son. The woman viewed the available unit, which was a newly remodeled one-bedroom unit, and told the defendant’s leasing agent that she wanted to continue renting the unit.

Defendant Jacqueline Fox, who manages the property and owns the LLC that owns it, initially told the woman she would be approved to move in.

However, when the woman mentioned that she was moving in with her son, defendant Fox responded that the woman could not move in because no children had lived in the property for more than eight years and it was not “child-friendly”.

She refused to rent to the woman and her son, and the woman filed a complaint with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). After HUD received the complaint, completed its investigation, and issued a discrimination charge, it referred the case to the Department of Justice.

The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing against families with children.

Source: Ministry of Justice

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Oklahoma