A Colorado landlord is refusing to rent to people who support Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Mark Holmes, the landlord, wrote in his ad for a Grand Junction downtown apartment that people shouldn’t call if they plan on voting for Trump.
“I guess I did it because I want America to wake up, and I know that I can’t change people’s vote but any vote for Donald Trump is in the way wrong direction,” Holmes told 9News.
The social and environmental advocate, who studied sociology at Miami University, lives in the apartment above the one he’s renting out, making it a personal choice.
“I didn’t want to live with somebody that is going to vote for Donald Trump, they’re just not my kind of person,” he said, noting that he’s already found a renter.
“He’s preaching hate and he’s preaching … a lot of venom, spit and vinegar. And I live in the top part of the house,” he added to the Grand Junction Sentinel. “I don’t want anybody that even thinks that Donald Trump can be a good president to live in my home.”
Some claimed Holmes was violating federal housing rules that prohibit discrimination, but an official with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said he’s not.
“That has nothing to do with the Fair Housing Act,” spokesman Jerry Brown said, noting that he hasn’t received inquiries about similar ads. “But that seems to be a first, and it’s original.”
