I don't even know where to begin with this one. For context, I'm a typical broke college student that struggles to buy groceries and pay bills. I started working for my landlords about a year ago. It wasn't my first choice by any means, but I was desperate and they pay better than any of the other college-friendly jobs around here.
Since I started here, I've seen some really awful and disheartening stuff. The owner of the company, along with all of his corporate henchmen, are pure evil. They spend their days ruining peoples' lives in a courtroom, most of them Black. It's pretty obvious that most of these are racially motivated, considering Black tenants end up in court over $50 while white tenants rack up thousands of dollars in unpaid rent and fees without any consequences from the company. They don't try to hide their racism either; they make plenty of awful comments in the office and even have code words for Black tenants. It's even worse for the international students here from India. I've seen managers scream at these tenants, refusing to rent to them to avoid the “curry smell” and targeting them in apartment raids to find illegal tenants.
I've seen mass unannounced “clean-ups” that consist of tearing through the complexes and throwing out peoples' personal belongings that they've left outside (which they had previously been told was okay to do). Property managers have been explicitly told to deny people with children, even if they have to make up reasons to justify it, in order to preserve the “college” atmosphere. Everyone here is so brainwashed by the rich higher-ups and worships the owner because he's so successful and generous, as if he didn't just double the cost they were paying for their own health insurance while still being able to easily afford his mansion and vacation homes.
This job is the only reason I've been able to afford to live right now. I am set to graduate in just a few months and be done with this job, but they are still going to be helping me out throughout the summer with rent discounts. I know that the things going on here are wrong and definitely illegal, but I don't really know what to do about it. It's not like I can just call the cops and try to report them when the cops and the landlords are BFFs.
Surely all of this has to be some kind of Fair Housing violation, right? If anyone has any advice on how a college student can take down an entire housing conglomerate, I would really appreciate it.