Housing discrimination in California disproportionately affects historically marginalized communities

Housing discrimination in California is hitting hardest among communities long targeted by discrimination, according to a new UCLA Center for Health Policy Research study that reveals stark disparities across race and ethnicity, disability, gender identity, income and housing stability.

Despite decades of civil rights protections and fair housing laws, data from the 2023 and 2024 California Health Interview Surveys (CHIS) showed that Black or African American Californians, people with disabilities, transgender and gender-expansive residents, and those with unstable housing experienced disproportionately high rates of housing discrimination.

According to CHIS data, 10% of Black or African American Californians, 9% of Californians with a disability, and 8% of transgender and gender-expansive Californians said they had experienced housing discrimination in the two years prior to being surveyed. All of those are approximately double the state average of 4% of adults - more than 1.3 million people - who experienced housing discrimination.

Housing discrimination is defined in the study as directly experiencing discrimination or harassment related to housing, including while renting or buying a home, obtaining a mortgage, getting a landlord to make repairs or interacting with neighbors.

"Even with federal and state legal protections in place, housing discrimination remains hard to detect and is likely underreported, said Alex Bates, CHIS senior data analyst and lead author of the study. "That makes surveys like CHIS especially important for understanding who is most affected and for informing prevention, enforcement and policy responses.

Working in concert federal and state laws explicitly forbid discrimination on the basis of race and ethnicity, disability, and sexual orientation and gender identity, among other characteristics.

Rates of housing discrimination varied by race and ethnicity. Black or African American Californians experienced the highest rates (10%), followed by American Indian or Alaska Native (7%), Latinx (6%), multiracial (6%), Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander (5%), Middle Eastern or North African (4%), white (4%) and Asian (3%) Californians.

The study's authors note that housing discrimination is much more than a legal matter. Being the target of discriminatory housing practices is associated with several mental and physical consequences, including worse cardiovascular health and depression.

"Housing discrimination is a critical driver of inequities in California, and it is felt disproportionately by renters, people who receive housing vouchers and lower-income families," said Susan Babey, director of research at the UCLA CHPR and co-author of the study. "It is time for policy approaches that treat housing as the public health necessity it truly is, starting with the structural conditions that allow discrimination to thrive."

Lower-income Californians and people with unstable housing were more likely to face discrimination

According to CHIS data, about 1 in 4 (24%) adults with unstable housing experienced housing discrimination in the two years prior to being surveyed. This was seven times the rate of those with stable housing (3%) and more than five times the statewide average (4%).

Additionally, 14% of people who have received federal housing assistance in the form of a House Choice Section 8 Voucher, and 8% of people whose incomes were less than 200% of the federal poverty level ($62,400 for a family of four in 2024 and $60,000 in 2023), said they experienced housing discrimination in the same time period.

In examining housing discrimination by disability, sexual identity and gender identity, and for renters versus homeowners, the study found:

• Adults with a disability experienced housing discrimination at more than double the rate of those without a disability (9% vs. 3%).
• Transgender and gender-expansive Californians were nearly twice as likely to experience housing discrimination compared to cisgender Californians (8% vs. 4%).
• Californians who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual and other non-heterosexual identities experienced housing discrimination at one-and-a-half times the rate of heterosexual people (6% vs. 4%).
• Renters experienced housing discrimination at nearly four times the rate of homeowners (8% vs. 2%).

Why people thought they were discriminated against

CHIS also asked respondents who had experienced housing discrimination why they thought they were discriminated against. Of those who experienced housing discrimination, race or skin color was the most common reason cited (45%), or about 1 in every 50 Californian adults overall.

Further examination showed that 80% of Black or African American adults attributed housing discrimination to race or skin color, 62% of multiracial adults, and 55% of Asian adults.

Among transgender and gender-expansive Californians who experienced housing discrimination, 40% said that they experienced housing discrimination because of sex or gender (including gender identity).

Recommendations

The report contained several recommendations, which included making sure people are aware of existing housing discrimination laws and how to report housing discrimination. This requires outreach in languages other than English. The report's recommendations also include fair housing testing, monitoring discriminatory housing advertisements, and direct outreach to housing providers.

"We did this study because housing discrimination needs more scrutiny," Bates said. "Self-reported experiences are likely an undercount because housing discrimination is often difficult to detect and concealed by perpetrators. Many victims may never even know they were discriminated against."

This study was produced as part of a partnership with the California Civil Rights Department, which in 2023 began sponsoring questions that were added to the annual CHIS to gain a clearer understanding of the overall impact of hate acts and discrimination across California. CHIS is the largest population-representative state health survey in the United States.