Online ads trade rent for sex

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) - On Dublin Court in Virginia Beach, the offer sounded like a good deal for a place to stay.

"He was looking for a roommate," said Lisa Newsome, "$400 a month, everything included."

And since November, Newsome has paid rent to the owner and it's been a good place to stay for her and her daughter.

The ad on Craigslist, an online listing site, never struck Newsome as strange. "I responded, I called him with the number that was on the ad and I came out I looked at it and moved in," she said. But an organization called Housing Opportunities Made Equal, or HOME for short, said other housing ads posted by the condo owner were far worse.

"This has got to be wrong, this has got to be discriminatory," said Amy Nelson.

Nelson is an investigator for HOME. A complaint filed by her organization with the Department of Housing and Urban Development said the condo owner posted an ad in December looking for a white female between the ages of 19 and 48, which is already illegal discrimination.

"People see these ads running and don't realize that they're unlawful and they then start using them in their own ads," said Nelson, "thereby perpetuating the discrimination making more ads run."

HOME filed twenty complaints with federal and state governments, saying housing listings discriminate illegally.

But it gets worse.

When an investigator contacted the owner about the ad, the complaint said the owner responded: "It will be like we are married, but we are not, the usual cook, clean an yes sex, you still do your own thing, so you save money an have fun doing it..."

Craigslist has a policy to remove any ads that suggest an exchange of sexual favors for money. And these ads have been removed, even as more are posted.

If you see a discriminatory ad, contact Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia, Inc ., or call 804-354-0641.