on the cover / By Bob Doran, Matt Jackson and Julie Woldow

Disorientation Week — Your student guide to housing, transit, surfing and weed

It gets better. The head office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development tells me that California law protects one’s right — a civil right in California — to get housing regardless of marital status, which is only protected by California law. “California law also prohibits discrimination based on any of the following … A perception of a person’s … marital status … or a perception that a person is associated with another person who may have any of these characteristics,” according to the California tenants’ pamphlet.

Tell me, based on these laws is it any of Crystal’s business whether I am in a relationship — of any kind? Does she have any justifiable right to quiz me repeatedly about the nature and extent of my singlehood? No way! Would she have asked those questions of an older applicant? What say you, jury of my peers? I think not!

Hold your horses, ’cause the story’s not over. According to California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act and Unruh Civil Rights Act, Timothy and Crystal also committed unlawful housing discrimination by representing to me that housing was not available for rental when in fact it was available. From my humiliated and infuriated point of view, the only thing worse than this flagrant violation of law is Timothy’s and Crystal’s lack of integrity and lack of respect for me as an intelligent, informed, conscientious citizen of Humboldt County.

Are there mitigating circumstances, you ask? Is it fair to hold Timothy and Crystal accountable for knowing all that legal verbiage? I mean, should we expect them to act like real property management professionals? Should they have to know the state laws pertaining to renting property, and that their potential renters enjoy certain civil protections? Or, that we will exercise our rights?

Here’s your punch line : This isn’t just about Timothy and Crystal. It’s about how you can defend yourself from being similarly victimized. To protect your rights, download a copy of the aforementioned “California Tenants” pamphlet. This well-organized and readable packet details the types of housing discrimination as well as the resources available to tenants for resolving such problems, notably the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Find it at the California Department of Consumer Affairs — www.dca.ca.gov.

Julie Woldow is a freelance writer who finally found a home in Humboldt County. She’s a graduate of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California.

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