Illegal Section 8 Discrimination is Rampant on Craigslist

California added “source of income” to the list of protected characteristics in 2022. Two years later, blatant discrimination remains commonplace.

Despite a 2020 law that outlawed discrimination against recipients of housing subsidies such as Section 8 in California, a review by IBT of Northern California rentals posted to Craigslist found that more than four years later, blatant violations of the law remain commonplace.

While California has some of the strongest tenant protections in the nation, until SB 329 took effect on January 1, 2020, with the exception of a few local ordinances, it was perfectly legal for landlords to reject applications from renters just because of their use of the federal Section 8 housing subsidy. 

Source of income discrimination, as the mechanism is formally known, exacerbates the already arduous process of receiving housing subsidies, as Section 8 recipients typically have just 60 days to make use of their vouchers, and that 60 day deadline comes after most applicants spend years on their city or county’s Section 8 waitlist. A study in Los Angeles prior to the city’s 2019 ban on Section 8 discriminatio…