California sues 2 Sacramento landlords, alleges they discriminated against Section 8 tenant

The Civil Rights Department earlier this month filed its first lawsuit to enforce a new state law intended to protect low-income tenants in California.

The lawsuit was filed against two Sacramento landlords, alleging they discriminating against a tenant, and chose to evict her for using federal assistant to pay rent.

California law prohibits discrimination against anyone who rents property using Section 8, a voucher program financed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

But according to the lawsuit filed in Sacramento County Superior Court in Dec. 2022, landlords, Carlos Torres and Linda Torres, harassed and evicted their tenant for using Section 8 vouchers after nearly five years of renting from them.

Alysia Gonsalves, who is low-income and disabled, had been using Section 8 since 1995, according to the lawsuit.

More than 300,000 California residents rely on the program, which provides rent subsidies directly to private landlords.

Gonsalves began renting from defendants in 2016. Her voucher covered most of the $994 monthly rent, with her makig up the $116 difference. The Torreses asked Gonsalves to pay an additional $150 each month for utilities, which she paid for more than four years. But in 2021, housing officials told her she was not supposed to pay those additional fees, according to the lawsuit.

When Gonsalves informed the Torreses of what she learned and stopped paying for utilities, the Torreses sent her an eviction notice, informing her they were no longer renting to Section 8 recipients.

“We’re not here to support government leeches,” read one of several aggressive or racially charged text messages from the Torreses to Gonsalves, according to the lawsuit.

In April 2021, Gonsalves’ attorney informed the Torreses that asking Gonsalves to leave was against the law.

They did not rescind the eviction, further harassing Gonsalves and calling her racial slurs. According to the lawsuit, Carlos Torress grabbed her by the arm and shook Gonsalves.

Gonsalves scrambled to move out in the summer of 2021, but in the middle of her move, her landlords stopped her from removing her belongings and changed the locks overnight, handing the property to their daughter. Gonsalves was unable to retrieve her furniture, medical equipment, family heirlooms and photographs. When Gonsalves was allowed to retrieve her property more than seven months later, much of it was destroyed from being outside.

Gonsalves filed a complaint for housing discrimination in November 2021, and the following November the state department concluded that she was subjected to discrimination, retaliation and harassment based on her race and source of income.

In response to alleged discrimination against voucher holders, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill in 2019 to further protect low-income tenants against discrimination, harassment and retaliation. California is one of 19 states that prohibits housing discrimination.

“Throughout the state, rental housing costs are climbing further out of reach for many Californians,” said CRD Director Kevin Kish. “Source-of-income discrimination by housing providers exacerbates this trend and is unlawful. No one should be threatened for asserting their rights to be free from housing discrimination, regardless of race, disability, or the lawful source of income they use to pay their rent.”

The Civil Rights Department works on educating landlords, reviews thousands of housing ads to ensure they don’t include “No Section 8” clauses, and resolved dozens of complaints made by low-income tenants who were discriminated against.

In 2022, the Civil Rights Department found that about 48% of the 80 properties tested showed evidence of discrimination, including incidents where landlords refused to rent properties to prospective Section 8 tenants.

“One of the keys to tackling California’s decades-long housing supply imbalance is to safeguard access to rental housing by combatting source-of-income discrimination,” said Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency Secretary Lourdes Castro Ramírez. “Housing vouchers are highly effective antipoverty programs that reduce housing cost burdens and address housing insecurity. Families in need that have waited for years for this assistance should not be denied housing simply because a landlord does not like the idea of subsidized rent.”