In a crowded neighborhood of duplexes, small apartments and one-story bungalows near a liquor store and pizza shop, William Asper serves as a landlord for nearly two dozen properties.
The Detroit suburb of Westland, Michigan, 10 minutes north of the Detroit Metropolitan Airport, is where Asper helps manage some weathered rental properties, many of which were built in the early 1970s and are more affordable to low-income families in this working-class region, according to federal records published by the Justice Department.
Amid surging housing costs, rent in the neighborhood is more affordable, including for families who use federal subsidies and have no other options for housing.
The Justice Department has alleged Asper tried to take advantage of the needs of his tenants, leveraging his position to seek sexual favors. The agency said Asper threatened to withhold repairs or evict tenants who did not comply.
In a court filing in Michigan earlier this month, the Justice Department alleged Asper told one tenant in 2019 “that there were ‘different ways’ she could pay rent.” The government’s attorneys also said he “touched the tenant without her consent, regularly pulling her hair, grabbing her buttocks and kissing her head.” And they alleged he “regularly pulled his penis out of his pants in front of the tenant while at her home, often times while her young son was in the room.”
In their court documents, Justice Department lawyers also alleged that in 2018, Asper told a “female tenant that he was lonely, wanted someone to spend time with him, and asked if she would go to a hotel with him. Asper allegedly “told the female tenant that if she did not engage in sexual relations with him, he would give her a 24-hour eviction notice.”
The allegations appeared in a civil lawsuit filed by the Justice Department against Asper, arguing he violated the federal Fair Housing Act. His civil case is pending in the Eastern District of Michigan federal court, and his formal response to the allegations has not yet been posted.
In a statement to CBS News, Asper said the accusations are false.
“I offer low-income housing and people want to blame the landlord or make excuses why they couldn’t pay the rent,” Asper said. “These women wanted to do more/be my ‘girlfriend’, side chick and that was not going to happen.”
Asper isn’t the only landlord facing such claims. It is one of at least 52 federal civil lawsuits alleging sexual harassment and misconduct against landlords since 2017.
“It’s traumatic for the victims,” said Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant U.S. attorney general for civil rights. “People may not believe them. And they may have been the victim multiple times.”
The Justice Department’s Sexual Harassment in Housing Initiative, which seeks to combat these types of cases, was launched in the first year of the first Trump administration in 2017. Dhillon’s team continues to pursue the cases. Several former Justice Department attorneys, including appointees of both the Biden and Trump Administrations, have lauded the program and its work since 2017.
There are 14 federal sexual harassment civil cases pending across the United States, including Asper’s case in Michigan.
In an interview with CBS News, Dhillon said the filings of these suits can serve as a deterrent to future harassment and abuse. She said the legal challenges “made all the women in that property feel like they’ve been seen and heard.”
Dhillon said the Fair Housing Act, which passed in 1968 amid the sweeping changes of the Civil Rights era, prohibits any kind of quid pro quo involving sex, sexual acts or sexual harassment, either for renting, continuing to rent or obtaining repairs.
“Every American deserves to feel safe and know this sexual harassment is inappropriate and illegal,” Dhillon said.
A CBS News review of some of the dozens of recently filed Justice Department cases shows parallels to the accusations against Asper.
In a separate legal challenge filed against a central New York landlord in 2018, the Justice Department alleged the harassment spanned three decades. The Oswego man is accused of “Demanding that female tenants engage in, or pressuring them to engage in, sexual intercourse, oral sex, or other sexual acts with him in order to obtain or keep rental housing.”
In a 2017 Justice Department complaint filed in federal court in Kansas, a Wichita-area landlord is accused of entering a female tenant’s apartment “unannounced” and “touching her body while she slept in her bed.” The landlord is also accused of “Conditioning tangible housing benefits, including forgiving or reducing rent, on engaging in sexual conduct.”
And in a legal challenge initially filed in Minnesota in 2020, the feds alleged a landlord offered to overlook or excuse unpaid rent and utilities in exchange for sex acts. The landlord was also accused of “Expressing a preference for renting to single female tenants.”
The legal challenges filed by the Justice Department can help secure civil penalties against landlords and damages for victims. A CBS News review of Justice Department records showed the agency has recovered approximately $1.5 million since January.
And in the New York, Kansas and Minnesota cases, the Justice Department struck written agreements with the landlords that, among other things, required them to hire independent property managers so they would no longer need to come into contact with tenants themselves.
A spokesperson for the National Fair Housing Alliance, a civil rights group that advocates for tenants and combats discrimination, said instances of sexual harassment by landlords are likely more pervasive than current statistics indicate.
“Sexual harassment in housing is one of the most underreported instances of housing discrimination, given that the victims often fear facing retaliation or eviction if they file a complaint,” the spokesperson said.
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, which handles Fair Housing Act sex harassment probes, has experienced a purge of veteran employees this year, amid a Trump-ordered downsizing of the federal government — led by the Department of Government Efficiency — and the Trump Administration’s dramatic shifts in some of the office’s priorities.
Justice Connection, a newly formed organization that supports ousted or resigning Justice Department prosecutors, estimated nearly 75% of career attorneys in the division have departed this year.
Dhillon said the unit that handles the housing cases has been less impacted by the changes and cuts. She told CBS News, “I don’t think we’re losing people in that section, and people are pretty happy with the type of work we’re doing.” Dhillon said the Civil Rights section has hired approximately 50 people this year, amid the larger turnover in the agency.
Some tenants have filed their own individual federal civil lawsuits alleging sex harassment in violation of the Fair Housing Act.
In one case, an Alabama woman filed a complaint in federal court alleging a series of personal harms. Her suit alleged “emotional distress, including humiliation and mental anguish” from a landlord who “offered to reduce her rent in exchange for sex.” The lawsuit alleged: “When [she] refused his sexual advances, he raised her rent.”
Housing advocates said low-income renters are particularly vulnerable to harassment, under fear that they could lose their housing if they reject a landlord’s unlawful advances.
The Justice Department’s posted guidance on its protections of the Fair Housing Act says that “women, particularly those who are poor, and with limited housing options, often have little recourse but to tolerate the humiliation and degradation of sexual harassment or risk having their families and themselves removed from their homes. The Department’s enforcement program is aimed at landlords who create an untenable living environment by demanding sexual favors from tenants or by creating a sexually hostile environment for them.”
The National Fair Housing Alliance spokesperson told CBS News: “Each investigation—and especially every resolution—sends a clear message that this egregious conduct, which targets the most vulnerable, will not be tolerated. Home should be a safe place, and these actions ensure that promise is upheld.”
