 The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced today that it has charged the owners of a house in Beltrami County and their real estate agent with discrimination for refusing to rent the house to a family because of their race, national origin and their children from a case stemming back from 2016. The charge alleges that lakes and more realty doing business as Bemidji Property Management refused to rent a six bedroom home to a family of four adults and seven children because of their race being Native American and national origin being Hispanic, along with the family's children. The charge further alleges that the owner and real estate agent discouraged the family from renting the home by offering them less favorable rental terms, including increasing the rent by $1,000. After being denied the house the family had to split up and live in two separate homes, the Fair Housing Act makes it unlawful to discriminate in housing because of the applicant's background. HUD's charge will be heard by a U.S. administrative law judge unless any party elects for the case to be heard in federal court. If the judge finds that discrimination has occurred he may award damages to the family for their losses as a result of the discrimination.