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By Jesse Bedayn

The Associated Press

DENVER 鈥� The U.S. Justice Department is suing several large landlords for allegedly coordinating to keep Americans鈥� rents high by using both an algorithm to help set rents and privately sharing sensitive information with their competitors to boost profits.

The lawsuit arrives as U.S. renters continue to see their incomes fail to keep up with rent increases. The latest figures show that in 2022 half of American renters spent more than 30 percent of their income on rent and utilities. That is an all-time high.

That means exhausting, day-to-day decisions between medications, groceries, school supplies and rent. It means eviction notices and protracted court cases in which children face the highest eviction rates, with 1.5 million suffering that fate each year, according to Princeton University鈥檚 Eviction Lab.

While the housing crisis has been assigned several causes, including a slump in homebuilding over the past decade, the Justice Department鈥檚 lawsuit claims major landlords are playing a part.

The department, along with 10 states 鈥� California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington 鈥� is accusing six landlords that collectively operate more than 1.3 million units in 43 states and the District of Columbia of scheming to avoid lowering rents. Those landlords are Greystar Real Estate Partners LLC (Greystar); Blackstone鈥檚 LivCor LLC (LivCor); Camden Property Trust (Camden); Cushman & Wakefield Inc. and Pinnacle Property Management Services LLC (Cushman); Willow Bridge Property Company LLC (Willow Bridge) and Cortland Management LLC (Cortland).

Greystar declined a request from The Associated Press for comment but published an unsigned statement on its website.

鈥淕reystar has and will conduct its business with the utmost integrity,鈥� the statement read. 鈥淎t no time did Greystar engage in any anti-competitive practices. We will vigorously defend ourselves in this lawsuit.鈥�

Greystar is headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina; LivCor and Cushman (whose residential property management business formerly operated independently as Pinnacle) are headquartered in Chicago; Willow Bridge (formerly known as Lincoln Residential) is headquartered in Dallas; Camden is headquartered in Houston; and Cortland is headquartered in Atlanta. All manage multifamily apartment buildings; several own some or all the properties under their management.

The lawsuit accuses the landlords of sharing sensitive data on rents and occupancy with competing firms via emails, phone calls or in groups. The information shared allegedly included renewal rates, how often they accept an algorithm鈥檚 price recommendation, the use of concessions such as offering one month free, and even their approach to pricing for the next quarter.

The Justice Department said one of the six landlords agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. The proposed settlement would restrict how the company can use its competitors鈥� data and algorithms to set rents.

鈥淭oday鈥檚 action against RealPage and six major landlords seeks to end their practice of putting profits over people and make housing more affordable for millions of people across the country,鈥� Doha Mekki, the acting assistant attorney general for the department鈥檚 antitrust division, stated in Tuesday鈥檚 press release.

Those landlords were added to an聽, which runs an algorithm that recommends rental prices to landlords. Prosecutors say the algorithm uses sensitive competitive information, allowing landlords to align their prices and avoid competition that would otherwise lower rents.

Jennifer Bowcock, RealPage鈥檚 senior vice president for communications, told the AP that the company鈥檚 software is used for fewer than 10 percent of rental units in the U.S., and that its price recommendations are used less than half the time.

鈥淚t鈥檚 past time to stop scapegoating RealPage 鈥� and now our customers 鈥� for housing affordability problems when the root cause of high housing costs is the under-supply of housing,鈥� Bowcock stated.

Editor鈥檚 note: information from a Justice Department press release was used to supplement the AP鈥檚 report.