Burbank Housing settles discrimination complaint

In the second North Bay settlement announced within a two-week period in April, a San Rafael-based fair housing advocacy organization settled a housing complaint against Burbank Housing Development Corp. and Burbank Housing Management.

The Sonoma County affordable housing developer manages or owns more than 70 housing properties in Sonoma and Napa counties. It settled the legal complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity for $41,500, Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California reported April 15.

Complaints filed in June 2022 accused the nonprofit of failing to abide by laws that guard against discriminatory practices against people with disabilities.

Fair Housing and the Sonoma County Tenants Union representatives met with renters who claimed they were “experiencing barriers to accessing reasonable accommodations from Burbank Management.”

One such disability allegation involved a tenant who wanted to adopt cats at the Parkwood Apartments on Montecito Boulevard, which allows pets. The dispute between the management and tenant involved the documentation surrounding the pet adoption.

“She didn’t fill out the necessary paperwork. It was frustrating,” said James Perez, the complex manager. “We’ve approved many pets. We’re not here to say no to anybody (wanting to have one).”
The complex has since streamlined the paperwork required to keep pets on the premises, he said. A policy change was also made in a concession to having a cat “on a leash” on the premises.

FHANC v. Burbank Signed Complaint - 6.30.22.pdf

Burbank agreed overall to consider “reasonable accommodation requests,” without an admission of guilt or wrongdoing, Burbank Housing spokesman Patrick Montgomery said.

“The agreement does not constitute an admission of wrongdoing by Burbank Housing nor the evidence of a determination by HUD that there was any violation of the Fair Housing Act or any other law by Burbank,” Montgomery said.

According to Fair Housing Advocates, disability-related discrimination ranked the most prominent of complaint calls in 2022-23 per county in the North Bay. The percentage of disability-related complaints in Marin County was 92, which is 82% of the complaint calls; Sonoma County had 96 at 90% rate; and Solano County with 57, comprising 84%.

Click here to read the article on the North Bay Business Journal website.