Five years after California lawmakers banned landlords from refusing to rent to tenants who use housing vouchers, new undercover tests show most Southern California landlords are still discriminating against voucher holders.
The California Civil Rights Department sponsored the testing, which was carried out last year by the L.A.-based Housing Rights Center.
Results announced Thursday showed that 54% of rental properties tested in L.A. and Ventura counties discriminated against tenants using federal housing assistance vouchers, commonly referred to as Section 8.
“There are some instances where people say openly discriminatory things, like, ‘No, we don’t accept Section 8,’” said Kevin Kish, director of the California Civil Rights Department.
The results from tests of 54 different properties showed that landlords outright refused to accept vouchers in 45% of the instances where voucher holders faced discrimination.
In the other 55% of cases, discrimination was more subtle.
Landlords steered voucher holders toward less desirable apartments, or gave them less favorable lease terms compared with tenants not using a voucher.
Landlord advocates said the results were too limited to fully capture what’s happening in the region’s rental housing market.
But fair housing advocates said the testing clearly shows discrimination is not a thing of the past.
“These barriers are often invisible to individuals who are looking for housing,” Kish said.
“If we aren’t testing for them, then we don’t know that they’re there.”
**How fair housing tests work**
Fair housing groups across the country carry out these tests by deploying pairs of people posing as prospective tenants.
These testers share many similarities, but differ according to legally protected characteristics such as race, disability, voucher use, and whether they have kids.
Testers contact landlords in person or over the phone to inquire about available housing units.
The results of those inquiries show whether landlords are treating tenants differently based on those characteristics.
In 2020, California enacted a law banning landlords from discriminating against tenants based on their source of income — including whether they pay part of their rent with a housing voucher.
But Chancela Al-Mansour, executive director of the Housing Rights Center, said the level of discrimination against voucher holders has remained fairly consistent in recent years.
“The bottom line is, it’s a law,” Al-Mansour said.
“They’re in the business of providing housing.
They can’t pick and choose and decide whether or not they’re going to take Section 8.”
**How landlords are responding to the results**
Fred Sutton, a spokesperson for the California Apartment Association, told LAist the findings were “based on a small, non-representative sample and should not be used to draw broad conclusions about the rental housing market in Southern California.”
Others said landlords are hesitant to accept vouchers because of the bureaucratic hurdles they associate with the program, not because of prejudice against people who use vouchers.
“What they’re thinking about when asked about a Section 8 voucher is just all of the red tape and hassle and the poor customer service they get from these housing authorities,” said Dan Yukelson, executive director with the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles.
Yukelson said despite the law being on the books for years, many landlords still don’t know that it’s illegal to refuse vouchers.
“It’s unfortunate if it’s happening,” he said.
“I think there’s just a lot of misunderstanding and confusion and a lot of education that’s needed.”
**Voucher holders aren’t the only tenants facing barriers**
Discrimination against voucher holders was the most common form of fair housing violation uncovered in this round of testing.
But other kinds of tenants also faced unequal treatment.
Tenants with children encountered some form of discrimination in 26% of the 19 properties tested.
In some cases, tenants with kids were told they’d have to pay higher rent.
In others, they were not given the same promotional rates provided to tenants without children.
Ninety properties were tested for evidence of racial discrimination.
Those tests revealed that in 22% of properties, tenants were treated unequally based on their race.
In some instances, Black tenants faced stricter credit score requirements and higher rents.
For tenants with disabilities, 23% of the 13 properties tested showed some level of discrimination.
Some examples involved landlords refusing to install grab bars in bathrooms or flashing doorbells for tenants with hearing impairments.
Tenants with criminal records faced discrimination in 44% of the 32 properties tested.
In the cases in which they faced some amount of discrimination, tenants were told nearly two-thirds of the time that felony, drug, or violent crime convictions would result in a denied rental application.
**What happens now?**
Kish, the California Civil Rights Department director, said these findings can lead to lawsuits against landlords and other kinds of enforcement.
“Testing can be used as evidence in legal action,” he said.
“We can start an investigation because of the results of tests.
We can also do things short of a legal investigation or a lawsuit in court, including sending letters.”
Last year, the department filed a lawsuit against a landlord in San Bernardino County for allegedly forcing out a long-term tenant by refusing to accept her newly acquired Section 8 voucher.
Local governments rely on voucher programs to keep low-income renters from sliding into homelessness.
Some of the vouchers were recently made available to residents who lost their homes in the January wildfires.
But it’s still fairly common for Angelenos who acquire vouchers after sitting on waitlists for years to end up losing those vouchers because they cannot find any landlord who will accept them.
Al-Mansour with the Housing Rights Center said her organization could also bring litigation against landlords who violate fair housing laws.
But she said that work could be hampered by recent federal funding cuts under the Trump administration.
“Unfortunately, we have fewer resources than ever to file lawsuits,” she said.
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