Orange County Perspective : Still Work to Do Against Housing Bias : * Latino Couples’ Persistence, and Judge’s Backing, Show How System Should Work

When the Orange County Human Relations Commission was founded more than 20 years ago, one of its main purposes was to battle discrimination in housing. As is obvious from a federal judge’s ruling last month, that fight continues.

U.S. District Judge David W. Williams ruled that a San Juan Capistrano homeowners association and its property manager discriminated against two Latino couples by making ethnic remarks that steered them away from buying a condominium.

The two couples--a brother and his wife, a sister and her husband--went elsewhere, but they didn’t just shrug off the matter. In an admirable display of persistence in battling for their rights, they complained to authorities. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development investigated and forwarded the complaints to the Justice Department, which filed suit under the Fair Housing Act. It’s a textbook example of how the system is supposed to work to help right wrongs.

Judge Williams did his part, too, ordering the homeowners association and the property manager to pay nearly $62,000 to the couples who wanted to buy and to the owners who wanted to sell. The owners were forced to settle for less money when they sold to a subsequent buyer. The judge’s fine should provide an example that wrong conduct can cost money.

The judge found that the property manager told a realtor that the homeowners’ association “did not want this type of element” in the condominium; the manager said he did not want the development to become like another complex across the railroad tracks that was predominantly occupied by Latinos. Such bias is intolerable.

The County Human Relations Commission continues to receive complaints about discrimination in housing. And the Orange County Fair Housing Council, a private, nonprofit body that has city and county contracts to serve as a fair-housing watchdog, reported that last year it received 209 complaints of racial discrimination.

The council’s executive director said the number of complaints, most of which involved rental housing, was one of the highest in the country, and represented an increase of 50% over the previous year. He said in part it may be because more people here are knowledgeable about laws against discrimination and are willing to complain.

And complain is what they should do. Bias in housing, as in other areas, must end. Hefty fines are one weapon that should be used.