AB 277

Current law prohibits discrimination in housing on the basis of sex, race, color,

sexual orientation, disability, religion, national origin, marital status, family status,

lawful source of income, age, or ancestry (protected class). A person who engages in

an act of housing discrimination may be required to provide such relief as may be

appropriate, including economic and noneconomic damages and injunctive or other

equitable relief, and to pay a forfeiture of not more than $10,000, except that a person

who is not a natural person may be required to pay a forfeiture of not more than

$25,000 if the person has committed a previous act of housing discrimination within

the preceding five years or a forfeiture of not more than $50,000 if the person has

committed two or more previous acts of housing discrimination within the preceding

seven years.

Current law also prohibits a mortgage banker, loan originator, or mortgage

broker from treating a person unequally based on the person's membership in a

protected class. In addition, current law prohibits a real estate broker, real estate

salesperson, or time-share salesperson from treating a person unequally based on

the person's sex, race, color, handicap, national origin, ancestry, marital status, or

lawful source of income.

Current law, however, does not prohibit an owner of housing from requiring

that a person who is seeking to buy or rent housing supply information concerning

the person's family status, marital status, and financial and business status, but

does prohibit an owner from requiring information concerning a person's race, color,

disability, sexual orientation, ancestry, national origin, religion, creed, or, subject to

an exception for housing for older persons, age.

This bill prohibits discrimination in housing on the basis of a person's status as

a victim of domestic abuse, sexual assault, or stalking, which is defined in the bill as

the status of a person who is seeking to rent or purchase housing or of a member or

prospective member of the person's household having been, or being believed by the

lessor or seller of housing to be, a victim of domestic abuse, sexual assault, sexual

assault of a child, repeated sexual assault of a child, or stalking. The bill also

prohibits an owner of housing from requiring that a person seeking to buy or rent

housing supply information concerning the person's status as a victim of domestic

abuse, sexual assault, or stalking.

"Domestic abuse" is defined under current law as the intentional infliction of

physical pain, physical injury, or illness, the intentional impairment of physical

condition, sexual assault, criminal damage to property, or a threat to engage in any

of that conduct, by an adult family member or household member against another

adult family member or household member, by an adult caregiver against an adult

who is under the caregiver's care, or by an adult against his or her former spouse, an

adult with whom he or she has or has had a dating relationship, or an adult with

whom he or she has a child in common.