04Aug
Any type of discrimination is difficult to deal with, but this is especially true in the area of housing because our homes are our last sacred place of refuge and security. Although the most common types of complaints for housing discrimination in recent years are generally discrimination on the basis of disability, race, and family status, there is another form of discrimination that occurs often in the Bay Area: income source discrimination.
The Bay Area is a notoriously expensive region. Even with the rental strides made during the Covid-19 crisis, it remains this way. One way to help combat the high rental rates is through the use of government programs that provide housing assistance funds to support lower-income families and individuals living in costly cities like San Francisco and Berkeley. Unfortunately, some program participants are discriminated against merely for using them. However, state and local legislatures recognize this and have laws to help.
Under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, individuals are protected not only from housing discrimination based on characteristics, including race, national origin, religion, disability, gender, gender identity, familial status, sexual orientation, but also for some sources of income, including using program subsidies.
The Included Programs
The following list of the applicable housing programs is not an exhaustive list. Here are some of the programs that provide subsidies:
The city of San Francisco has its own law that prohibits housing discrimination including on the basis of source of income. Berkeley also specifies source of income as a protected class when it comes to housing discrimination.
It is illegal for a landlord or property manager to engage in any of the following actions based only on an individual's source of income or the housing assistance that the individual receives:
If you suspect that you're a victim of housing discrimination because of source of income, you can assert your rights. Get help from an experienced Wolford Wayne tenants' rights attorney who understands this subject area and will be in your corner. Contact us today to learn about what action to take.
Recovered on behalf of a group of 30 tenants living in an SRO in San Francisco who were living with horrendous conditions in their rent controlled apartments, including rodents, bedbugs, mold, water leaks and harassment.Read More
Recovered on behalf of three families living in a building in San Francisco’s SOMA neighborhood who were forced to live with substandard conditions for years as a result of their landlord’s negligence, including issues with lack of heat, lack of hot water and cockroach/rat infestations.Read More
Recovered on behalf of a couple living in a rent-controlled home in the outer Sunset neighborhood. Our clients were forced to vacate after the landlord served them with an Owner Move-In Eviction Notice. After the landlords failed to move into the property, our clients filed suit for wrongful eviction.Read More
Recovered on behalf of a San Francisco tenant in Russian Hill. Tenant was forced to vacate her illegal apartment in retaliation for reporting unlawful rent increases to the San Francisco Rent Board.Read More
Recovered for a single long-term tenant in San Francisco. Our client was forced to move out of his apartment as a result of extreme landlord harassment.Read More
Recovered on behalf of three long-term tenants in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood who were constructively evicted due to noise and nuisance conditions created by their downstairs neighbors, which the owner refused to address.Read More
Recovered on behalf of elderly, disabled tenant who was forced to move out of her rent-controlled San Francisco apartment of 50 years after landlord/owner failed to resolve numerous building code violations that remained outstanding for over a decade.Read More
Recovered on behalf of seven tenants living in a makeshift boarding house in East Palo Alto.Read More
Recovered on behalf of two former San Francisco tenants who were evicted via an Owner Move-In Eviction and owner failed to occupy the unit as her primary place of residence.Read More
Recovered on behalf of an elderly long-term tenant who was forced to vacate her long San Francisco apartment as a result of her landlord’s refusal to address longstanding defective conditions, including lack of heat, mold, rodent infestations, and defective plumbing. Read More
Recovered on behalf of a San Francisco tenant who was forced to vacate his home as a result of ongoing, disruptive construction and the owners’ refusal to provide him with alternative housing. Read More
Recovered on behalf of a San Francisco family that was constructively evicted from their home in the Richmond District as a result of unlawful rent increases, defective conditions and tenant harassment.Read More
Recovered on behalf of a tenant living in an illegal “in-law” unit. In this case, a new owner purchased the building and then demolished our client’s unit without permits while she was displaced for seismic retrofitting.Read More
Recovered on behalf of two long term San Francisco tenants who were fraudulently evicted from their home of over twenty years under the pretext of an owner move-in eviction.Read More
Recovered for tenant who was injured when their stairway railing collapsed at the tenant’s Mission District apartment building.Read More
Recovered in action for a group of tenants forced to vacate their San Francisco apartment house due to severe habitability defects including mold and water leaks.Read More
For more information or to discuss your legal situation, call us today at (415) 649-6203 for a phone consultation or submit an inquiry below. Please note our firm can only assist tenants residing in San Francisco, Oakland & Berkeley.