Say you're discriminated against in your housing or job search in LA. Where do you get help?

As it turns out, CA law says cities can’t enforce anti-discrimination law. And the state agency is underfunded and backlogged.

We need better options. (thread) https://www.nelp.org/publication/the-case-for-local-enforcement-of-anti-discrimination-laws-in-ca/

CA passed legislation in 1959 to protect residents from discriminatory practices in employment and housing.

But since then, the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) has seen its budget slashed -- even as complaints have risen sharply. https://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-pc-state-civil-rights-agency-underfunded-hindered-by-poor-policy-study-finds-20131217-story.html

CA’s anti-discrimination dept. received 27,840 complaints in 2018. It opened investigations into 5,395 of them -- and only 821 were settled or litigated.
That means 15% of Californians whose discrimination claims were investigated got positive results.
https://www.dfeh.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/2020/01/DFEH-AnnualReport-2018.pdf

For most claims, the CA Dept. of Fair Employment and Housing may take months or years to reply, and conclude with only a “right-to-sue notice,” which means the complainant is free to hire a private lawyer on their own.

For those who can’t afford a lawyer, this is not helpful.

Discrimination has been deeply harmful to Black Angelenos.

A UCLA report found that non-college educated Black workers are unemployed at almost *double* the rate of their white counterparts.

And Black workers earn only 3/4 of what white workers do.
https://www.labor.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/UCLA_BWC_report_5-3_27-1.pdf

The backlog at DFEH is also a big problem in LA’s entertainment industry, where jobs are often short term and LLCs are created on a project-by-project basis.

By the time the state weighs in, the job is often finished, and liability is limited to that specific project.

Last year, LA created a Civil and Human Rights Dept. to “level the playing field and reduce discrimination."

But due to state law, it has no jurisdiction over employment or housing discrimination based on race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. https://civilandhumanrights.lacity.org/about-chrd-2 

Perhaps in recognition of its limited power, LA’s Civil and Human Rights Dept. is not built to take on serious reform.

It’s currently budgeted for seven employees. Like all civilian city workers, they're also losing 10% of their work days to furlough.
http://cao.lacity.org/budget20-21/BlueBook1/

The current CA system for addressing discrimination isn’t working, and LA’s new Civil and Human Rights Dept. doesn’t have the power to pick up the slack.

As a city, let’s lobby the state for local authority to enforce anti-discrimination law and better protect *all* Angelenos.