Fair Housing is the Law

Federal, state, and local laws prohibit all housing discrimination based on multiple categories.

The specific categories include: race, color, sex, religion, national origin, ancestry, mental disability, physical disability, such as HIV or AIDS, familial status (children), marital status, age, sexual orientation, source of income, student status, or other arbitrary reasons. The laws cover housing for rent or sale, advertising, lending, insurance, steering, red lining and hate crimes.

Remedies for illegal discrimination include injunctive relief, monetary damages, and penalties. In California, virtually every unit of housing for rent or sale is covered under the fair housing laws.

The Housing Department of the City of Los Angeles implements the local fair housing initiative, which includes a contract with the Southern California Housing Rights Center to provide a citywide fair housing program. The Housing Rights Center, together with its subcontractors - the Fair Housing Council of the San Fernando Valley and the Fair Housing Foundation - provide the following services:

• Investigation of housing discrimination complaints concerning housing for rent or sale, advertising, lending, insurance, steering, blockbusting and hate crimes. Remedies for valid complaints, include conciliations, legal action and administrative referrals to state and federal fair housing agencies;
• Multilingual counseling on fair housing and predatory lending issues;
• Multilingual property owner, manager and Realtor training sessions;
• Educational seminars, workshops and presentations on fair housing.

Incidents of suspected discrimination should be reported immediately! Be sure to keep a record of any meetings and phone calls with a landlord, property manager, real estate agent, loan officer, or insurance agent. Include the person's name, title, the meeting place, date, and time. Make notes on what happened and what was said. Save all receipts, applications, business cards, or other documents received during any meetings.

To make a complaint or obtain more information, services are available over the telephone, through the Internet and at four walk-in locations throughout the city. On the Internet go to www.hrc-la.org or call the toll-free hotline at 800-477-5977.