The Clover Group: Real Estate Management Firm Accused of Race-Based Housing Discrimination in Development of

By Geoff Kelly/Investigative Post

The Clover Group — one of the region’s biggest real estate development and management firms — has been accused in a federal lawsuit of discriminating against Black people in the way it selects sites to build apartment complexes for senior citizens.

A former employee claims that Clover executives routinely evaluated racial demographics when considering where to invest in new projects. If the surrounding area was more than 20 percent Black, the former employee claims, the company would reject the site — even if it met the firm’s other criteria related to property values, income levels and age demographics.

The whistleblower, Peter Rizzo, surreptitiously recorded Clover executives using the terms “Canadians” and “the Canadian factor” as a code for discussing the number of Black people living in proximity to a proposed development site.

In the recordings — which are quoted in the lawsuit and can be heard at investigative post.org — the executives explain to Rizzo that building in communities they considered “heavily Black” was “tough” because there might be an “issue with residents paying their rent.”

The lawsuit alleges that Clover and its executives:

•“intentionally engaged in illegal race-based housing discrimination by refusing to develop housing in or near Black neighborhoods.”

•commented “on the number of ‘Canadians’ or ‘shvartzes’ (a Yiddish racial slur)” living near potential building sites. •were warned that their practices violated state and federal fair housing laws.

•fired the whistleblower “in a blatant and illegal act of retaliation.”

Rizzo was fired in January after just six months with the company. He said Clover told him he was being let go because the company was having financial trouble. In his lawsuit, Rizzo claims he was fired because he objected to Clover’s “racist and illegal” practices.

“Clover knows what they’re doing is wrong,” Rizzo told Investigative Post. “They didn’t bat an eye when I let them know that this is illegal. They know it’s illegal.”

Clover’s president and CEO, Michael Joseph, refused to comment, as did the executives Rizzo recorded. But a public relations firm Clover hired sent a statement describing Rizzo as “angry and disgruntled” and his allegations as “meritless, baseless, and misleading.”

“Clover does not make business decisions on the basis of any unlawful criteria,” the statement continued. “The company intends to defend itself vigorously.”

The PR firm also noted Joseph’s “extensive philanthropic activities,” including financial support for programs “that benefit primarily African American communities right here at home.”

Investigative Post spoke to current and former Clover employees who requested anonymity because they feared retaliation. They corroborated Rizzo’s allegations.

Joseph founded the Clover Group in 1987. The company says it currently manages about 7,000 rental units in seven states. The company website advertises more than 50 apartment complexes marketed to senior citizens.

It has 11 such properties in Western New York. All but one are located in predominantly white ZIP codes with a Black population lower than 20 percent. Eight of the 11 local projects are located in Zip Codes Census that are 97 percent or more white.

In all but two locations, the surrounding Black population is lower than 10 percent.

The one senior housing complex in Clover’s portfolio that is located in a community that would qualify as “heavily Black” by the company’s standard is the Jill Joseph Tower, just west of Main Street in Buffalo’s University District. The 14214 ZIP code in which it is situated is 32 percent Black.

Last Wednesday, University District Council Member Rasheed Wyatt said he was “appalled” by the allegations.

Wyatt said he frequently receives complaints from the complex’s residents — “many of whom are African American,” he noted — about poor living conditions. He said he’d tried to work with Clover’s management team to get their complaints addressed, to little avail.

“Now I’m understanding why [their issues] have not gone addressed,” Wyatt said.

Joseph, his wife and Clover have been prolific donors to politicians and political parties, giving at least $660,000 over the past 20 years — mostly, but not exclusively, to Democrats. Andrew Cuomo received $222,449, more than any other candidate.

Joseph was chair of Mark Poloncarz’s transition team when Poloncarz was preparing for his first term as Erie County executive in 2010. Over the years, Joseph and Clover have donated $34,000 to the Poloncarz campaign.

Clover’s local projects have benefited from taxpayer subsidies, including $1.67 million in property tax abatements issued by local industrial development agencies and $11.8 million in low-interest loans from the state.

Joseph is the long-time chair of the board of Roswell Park Cancer Institute, which has been sued at least 15 times in the past eight years for race and gender discrimination in the workplace. He also serves on the AKG Gallery’s board.

Wyatt called on Roswell Park and the AKG Gallery to remove Joseph from their boards, a sentiment echoed by one of Rizzo’s attorneys.

“I think those groups should take action,” said Nate McMurray of Advocates for Justice, the firm representing Rizzo in his lawsuit.

Rizzo’s lawsuit asks the court to affirm his contention that Clover’s practices violate both federal and state law. He also asks for $15 million for back and future pay lost, as well as “pain and suffering and punitive damages.”

Investigative Post is a nonprofit investigative reporting center based in Buffalo. You can find their work at investigativepost. org and on WGRZ, Channel 2. You can subscribe to their free, weekly newsletter by emailing info@investigativepost.org.

Jonathan Eig was deep in the Duke University archives researching his new biography of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. when he made an alarming discovery: King’s harshest and most famous criticism of Malcolm X, in which he accused his fellow civil rights leader of “fiery, demagogic oratory,” appears to have been fabricated.

“We’ve been teaching people for decades, for generations, that King had this harsh criticism of Malcolm X, and it’s just not true,” Eig told The Washington Post.

The quote came from a January 1965 Playboy interview with author Alex Haley, a then-43-year-old Black journalist, and was the longest published interview King ever did. Because of the severity of King’s criticism, it has been repeated countless times, cast as a dividing line between King and Malcolm X. The new revelation “shows that King was much more open-minded about Malcolm than we’ve tended to portray him,” Eig said. Some of the phrases added to King’s answer appear to be taken significantly out of context, while others appear to be fabricated.

In remembrance of Malcolm X (El-Hajj Malik elShabazz) who was born on May 19, 1925 and was assassinated on February 21, 1965. Ossie Davis eulogized him by saying: " If you knew him you would know why we must honor him. Malcolm was our manhood, our living black manhood! This was his meaning to his people."

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