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Lawsuit Filed Against Rental
Property Owner for Refusing Section 8
The Housing Rights Center (HRC) has filed a lawsuit on behalf of an elderly tenant in Los Angeles who suffered illegal discrimination because she receives a Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher. Source of income discrimination is a violation of city and state law.The 78-year-old senior on a fixed income and has lived in her Los Angeles apartment for 22 years. After waiting for many years, she finally received a Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher to subsidize her rent. The voucher, funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and administered by the City of Los Angeles, pays all or a portion of the rent directly to the landlord.
The lawsuit alleges, the property owner, who owns and manages multiple other properties throughout Los Angeles, refused to accept the monetary assistance for her long-term tenant and began a year-long campaign to blatantly undermine the tenant’s fair housing rights. The investigation later uncovered multiple illegal actions to avoid accepting the lawful rental payments and to deny other Section 8 voucher holders their rights to equal housing.
Discrimination against Section 8 rent subsidy programs is included in existing laws in the City and County of Los Angeles and the State of California which make it illegal to discriminate against a tenant or a potential tenant based on the source of their income.
HRC launched a campaign to identify, educate, and hold accountable landlords and property management companies in Los Angeles County that routinely discriminate against Section 8 voucher holders.
Still, HRC receives numerous complaints each year about landlords and management companies refusing to accept these vouchers.
Question: Do you accept Section 8?
Your answer: YES. Always, YES!
Read more articles from the February edition of the AOA Magazine