FHANC Supervising Attorney Casey Epp talks to KPFA about a recent national origin housing discrimination complaint that was recently settled. Interview begins at 54:27.

By KERI BRENNER | kbrenner@marinij.com | Marin Independent Journal

A Latino family who was rejected for a two-bedroom apartment in San Rafael reached a settlement in a discrimination complaint against the landlord.

The complainants are Adan Bernardino Peralta, his wife and two children. They were represented by San Rafael-based Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California.
They filed the complaint against the Continuum Housing Association-San Rafael Redevelopment Agency. The apartment in question was at the Lone Palm Court building at 840 C St.

The settlement was reached late last month. Continuum Housing Association agreed to pay $18,000 to the complainants; attend two annual fair housing training sessions; list the rental property with San Rafael-based Canal Alliance and tacolist.com; post U.S. Housing and Urban Development’s fair housing posters in English and Spanish; and send HUD’s fair housing brochures in English and Spanish to all residents.

Caroline Peattie, executive director of San Rafael-based Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California. (James Cacciatore/Special to the Marin Independent Journal)“We are pleased that Continuum Housing Associates agreed to mediate so we could arrive at a settlement,” said Caroline Peattie, executive director of Fair Housing Advocates, in a released statement. “Mr. Peralta was able to have a forum where he could speak about his experience and the injury he had suffered and feel that he was heard.”

Peattie said the settlement was the result of an administrative complaint filed in August with the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing after a months long investigation by Fair Housing Advocates. It looked into the circumstances surrounding Peralta’s unsuccessful application for a two-bedroom apartment at Lone Palm Court in August 2017.

Peralta, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Mexico, said in the complaint that the Lone Palm Court manager at first took his application, but then later returned it and the money order for the application fee. The manager told Peralta that the reason for the return was that Peralta’s wife, who was born in Colombia but who was a U.S. resident with a valid tourist visa, did not submit U.S.-based identification.