TRENTON, NJ — Attorney Gen. Christopher S. Porrino and the Division on Civil Rights announced June 14 they have launched a bilingual campaign to raise housing rights awareness and discourage housing discrimination by providing anti-discrimination posters to more than 500 public and private entities statewide.
According to Division Director Craig T. Sashihara, the division has sent sets of two anti-housing discrimination posters — one in English and one in Spanish — to a total of 560 entities that interact daily with members of the public from all social and economic demographics.
Included among the recipients are public libraries, community colleges, YMCAs, ARC locations, veterans’ centers, Planned Parenthood sites, Jewish community centers, Islamic community centers and county hospitals.
“Absolute equality in housing is the law in New Jersey. Individuals who are otherwise eligible renters and buyers have a right to live where they choose and to be treated equally when shopping for a home or seeking rental accommodations,” Porrino said in a press release. “We are committed to ensuring this fundamental right, and we encourage public facilities, community groups and others across New Jersey to help us by displaying these posters in conspicuous locations.”
The two color posters feature the same photograph, depicting a young U.S. war veteran of Iraq sitting in a wheelchair outside a brick building with a “for rent” sign on the door, and also contain the same message that: “Fair housing is his tight and yours!”
“Michael fought overseas for his country and shouldn’t have to fight housing discrimination at home,” the posters assert, while also urging readers to report discrimination to www.NJCivilRights.gov or 866-405-3050.
Sashihara noted that, while many people understand that both state and federal law prohibit housing discrimination based on race, the general public may not realize the full reach of New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination, which is widely regarded by lawyers and scholars to be among the most comprehensive state anti-discrimination laws in the country.
Each year, Sashihara said, the division investigates hundreds of discrimination complaints of all types filed by the public, including many housing complaints. Some examples from 2016 include: an apartment complex that violated LAD when it refused to rent a unit to a young family with three minor children because the family had “too many kids”; a housing cooperative that violated LAD when it refused to provide reasonable accommodations to a minor child who was suffering mental disabilities arising from the death of her father; and dozens of landlords who violated LAD when they refused to rent to persons relying on government-issued housing vouchers — so-called Section 8 funds — to help make ends meet.
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