Former Inlivian employee sues for alleged discrimination against housing applicants

CHARLOTTE — A former employee at Charlotte’s public housing authority says there was a pattern of discrimination against some applicants, according to a new lawsuit filed earlier this month.

Tonya Lightner used to work as a homeownership program coordinator for Inlivian, formerly known as the Charlotte Housing Authority, according to court documents filed on Dec. 8.

According to court documents obtained by Channel 9′s Joe Bruno on Wednesday, Lightner says she was instructed by her supervisor to discriminate against certain applicants to the homeownership program by not processing their eligible applications beginning in October 2020. The lawsuit was first reported by Channel 9′s news partners at The Charlotte Observer.

Specifically, the lawsuit says Lightner was told to not submit applications from people “that were considered elderly” and others “that had low credit scores,” even though the homeownership program had credit repair workshops.

Court documents identified Lightner’s supervisor as Monica Nathan, the vice president of operations for Inlivian.

According to the lawsuit, Lightner says that she was instructed “to prioritize the applications of Nathan’s associates over other interested applicants.” The suit claims that many of the applicants prioritized by Nathan had used lenders and realtors connected to her.

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The lawsuit says that if Lightner didn’t follow Nathan’s instructions on prioritizing applicants, she would be threatened and harassed. Lightner says she would be told that the applicants “selected against Nathan’s instructions would be cancelled.”

Lightner says she took her concerns to Inlivian’s human resources department, but the lawsuit claims no action was taken by Inlivian to address her concerns. Lightner claims that in response, she experienced more write-ups. After a “continued pattern of retaliation,” Lightner said she suffered from panic attacks and anxiety, leading her to resign from the company.

An Inlivian spokesperson told the Charlotte Observer that it doesn’t comment on personnel matters or ongoing litigation, but they did issue a brief response.

“Inlivian works vigorously to enforce its policies related to fair housing and equal employment opportunity in an effort to ensure compliance with all state, federal and local laws. We look forward to the favorable resolution of this matter,” Cheron Porter said in an email to the Observer.

According to the lawsuit, Lightner is requesting $25,000 in lost wages, plus additional damages to be determined by a jury.

Lightner’s attorney, Shayla Richberg, told the Observer that they hope the case will provide information to Charlotte residents who were “putting in applications that have been denied and didn’t know why.”

‘It was my life’

“It was everything to me,” Lightner told Joe Bruno.

She said she worked for Inlivian for 16 years. Her responsibilities included processing applications from people seeking assistance from a homeownership program designed to help residents with financial challenges and lower credit scores.

Lightner said she was passionate about the work.

“It was my life,” she said. “It was my life. I enjoyed it.”

“If you believe that when you were going through this process, that something did not feel right, to give us a call,” said her attorney, Shayla Richberg.

She wants people who applied for the program to contact her if they think their applications weren’t properly processed.

“I do want to make sure that Charlotte residents are aware of the issues that were observed, so that they can follow up with their applications accordingly and demand justice,” Richberg said.

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