‘Failed To Act’: White Tenant Spat on Black Woman, Tried to Run Over Another, and Called Them Racial Slurs, But Management Did Nothing, Lawsuit Says
The owner of an apartment building in Washington, D.C. that allegedly failed to intervene when two of its Black female tenants were repeatedly subjected to racist and sexist harassment, threats and physical violence from a white male tenant now has to pay for its inaction.
In a settlement agreement with the District of Columbia filed in federal court on March 27, Highlands, Colorado-based UDR, a real estate company that owns Waterside Towers Apartments in southwest D.C., will pay the district $50,000 in penalties and reform its business practices to resolve claims that it facilitated a hostile housing environment for Black women.
The lawsuit, originally filed in D.C. Superior Court in January 2024, chronicles the abuse that two women say they endured over several months in 2020 from Gueorgui Iskrenov, a white male tenant in their building who was eventually convicted of a hate crime.
The plaintiff, identified as Ms. M., says she was already feeling uncomfortable in the confined space of the Waterside Towers’ elevator on April 20, 2020, with Iskrenov, who was not wearing a mask despite the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, when his pit bull jumped on her. She tried to exit the elevator but was blocked by Iskrenov, the complaint says, and had to force him to let her off.
Iskrenov called her a “Black b***h,” a “n****r c**t,” and a “Black lives matter n****r” as she was exiting the elevator, she claims.
Ms. M. reported the incident to building management and asked them to “advise all tenants not to verbally assault their neighbors,” but UDR took no action, she said, even after she had another confrontation with Iskrenov in front of a UDR employee on June 7, 2020.
Then in July, Ms. M. was leaving the building’s parking garage when she encountered Iskrenov, “who swung a metal door at her, striking her in the arm. Iskrenov then pushed past Ms. M. again, calling her a ‘b***h’, ‘n****r’, and ‘c**t’ as he walked by.”
A few days later, she says Iskrenov drove past her in the garage and made a gun gesture with his hand, pointing it at her as he drove by.
Ms. M. emailed multiple members of management at UDR the next day about “the persistent race- and sex-based harassment,” and stated that she was becoming very concerned for herself and other Black female tenants. Iskrenov had recently called another Black woman and her daughter ‘Popeye’s chicken eating N****r,’ she reported.
A UDR community director responded to her July 8, 2020, email that he’d like to meet with her, but by the end of the month, no meeting had occurred, and she’d heard nothing more from him.
She sent more emails to UDR management reiterating that Iskrenov had threatened her and followed her out of the building while engaging in racist rants, sometimes using his dog to threaten her. She warned their inaction “had given Iskrenov the green light to continue harassing” her.
Meanwhile, the plaintiff identified as Ms. G. was also facing a pattern of harassment and intimidation from Iskrenov, the lawsuit says.
A resident of Waterside Towers since October 2018, Ms. G. alleges that Iskrenov almost struck her with his car on July 20, 2020, when he accelerated towards her while she was crossing in a pedestrian crosswalk. Iskrenov then rolled his window down and yelled racist slurs at her before spitting in her face — again, amid the height of the COVID-19 pandemic —and threatening her.
Ms. G. verbally reported the incident to a UDR employee as well as the police the same day.
On July 30, 2020, having received no response from UDR, Ms. G. emailed four members of UDR’s management staff and described the July 20, 2020 incident with Iskrenov, informing them that Iskrenov referred to her as “n****r b***h, black b***h, fat b***h, ugly b***h; told [her] to shut the f**k up, and threatened to f**k [her] up.” She also provided Iskrenov’s name and identified his vehicle to UDR.
On Aug. 4, 2020, UDR’s attorney separately emailed both women and directed them to direct all future correspondence regarding their complaints about Iskrenov to him, but did not indicate the company would take any action to address their concerns and fears.
On Aug. 12, 2020, Iskrenov was arrested as a result of the July 20, 2020, spitting incident with Ms. G and charged with simple assault. The same day, a court issued a Stay Away/No Contact order to Iskrenov, ordering him to engage in “no assaultive, abusive, harassing or stalking behavior” toward her.
Despite this, on Aug. 15, while Ms. G. was talking with a neighbor outside the apartment, Iskrenov approached her, stood directly in front of her and glared at her, pacing back and forth, the complaint says.
Ms. G. reported this ongoing harassment to the Equal Rights Center in D.C., which asked UDR to take immediate steps to address the harassment and to transfer her to a comparable two-bedroom unit so that Iskrenov would not know where she lived.
UDR still took no action against Iskrenov, the lawsuit says, despite the assault on her that led to his arrest, and after Ms. G notified them that he had violated the no-contact order. The company also failed to offer her an alternate comparable apartment.
Ms. G was “constantly scared for her safety and wellbeing in her home” as a result, and she says this fear inflicted on her severe emotional and physical distress, often manifesting as insomnia.
On Oct. 7, 2020, Iskrenov voluntarily moved out of the apartment complex. On Feb. 1, 2023, he was convicted of committing a hate crime based on his assault of Ms. G.
“UDR was repeatedly put on notice that Iskrenov was subjecting Black woman at Waterside Towers to severe, pervasive, targeted harassment. Time and again, UDR failed to act,” the lawsuit argues. This failure “denied UDR’s Black female tenants use and enjoyment of their homes equal to that of UDR’s non-Black and non-female tenants.”
The lawsuit, led by D.C. Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb, accused UDR of subjecting its Black women tenants to a hostile housing environment and failing to protect them, in violation of the D.C. Human Rights Act and the Consumer Protection Procedures Act.
It sought a jury trial to provide declaratory and injunctive relief to all tenants in buildings that UDR owns or manages in the district, civil penalties to the district, and restitution and damages to the tenants harmed.
After a mediation session on January 23, the parties decided to settle.
The consent order filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on March 27 and approved by Senior Judge Beryl A. Howell requires UDR to adopt new policies to identify and respond to complaints of tenant-on-tenant harassment; to retrain all staff and employees on federal and local fair housing and anti-discrimination protections; and to report any complaints alleging illegal discrimination or harassment of tenants at Waterside Towers to the Office of the Attorney General for the next three years.
UDR, which still denies all of the allegations in the lawsuit, must also pay $50,000 in penalties to the District.
The company has already adopted policies and practices for identifying and responding to complaints of harassment of residents by residents, UDR personnel, or other third parties, according to the consent order.
The order says that UDR has reached a separate financial settlement of an undisclosed amount with Ms. M and Ms. G, the two tenants who allegedly experienced harassment and abuse.
“UDR, in violation of DC law, allowed a hostile housing environment to persist at Waterside Towers. Despite being on notice, UDR refused to protect tenants from harassment, abuse, and threats on the basis of being Black women,” said Attorney General Schwalb in a statement. “The Office of the Attorney General remains committed to enforcing the law, protecting tenants, and using our independent authority to ensure that every Washingtonian has a safe place to call home.”
Attorneys for UDR and plaintiffs Ms. M. and Ms. G. did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Atlanta Black Star.