Housing Discrimination Complaints on the Rise, City Says

There has been a "surge" this year in the number of tenants, most of whom are disabled, filing discrimination complaints against their landlords, the city attorney's office announced Monday.

The office's consumer protection unit reported receiving seven complaints since January from tenants and housing applicants who claim they have been discriminated against because of their ages, religion and disabilities. Last year, prosecutors handled only three such cases.

All of this year's disputes have been resolved without litigation, including one involving a woman diagnosed with a serious respiratory disability, according to the city attorney's office.

The woman was initially denied a request to relocate into a vacant smoke-free unit in her building, even though a doctor confirmed secondhand smoke wafting into her unit, "exacerbated her respiratory disability," according to a press release. When she was told she couldn't relocate because there were other tenants ahead of her on a wait list, she filed a fair housing complaint with the city.

"Whether it's a smoke-free unit, a unit with a ramp, or a parking spot that's accessible or near the unit," prosecutors said in the release, "making exceptions to wait lists is a classic example of an accommodation needed to help disabled tenants get the apartments and amenities they need."

Some of the other cases involved tenants in no-pets buildings who were denied exceptions for emotional support animals and an apartment building where children were banned from playing in a small common courtyard.

Another involved a management company denying extended open house hours to a Jewish family that was unable to visit a vacant unit during regular viewing hours because their religion prohibited such trips.

The consumer protection unit will host a seminar on fair housing and "reasonable accommodations" from noon to 1:30 p.m. April 29 in the multi-purpose room on the second floor of the Santa Monica Library.

For more information, visit smconsumer.org. To register for the workshop, call (310) 458-8336.