Costa Mesa partners with group for fair housing

Costa Mesa recently established a partnership with a nonprofit organization that helps resolve issues of fair housing and disputes between landlords and tenants.

The Fair Housing Foundation looks to prevent housing discrimination — based on race, gender, sexual orientation or age.

The Fair Housing Council in Santa Ana was in charge of such responsibilities for Costa Mesa, but city officials decided it was time for change.

“We just decided that we wanted to go out and try a new company,” said Muriel Ullman, Costa Mesa’s neighborhood improvement manager. “Some communities had more issues [of fair housing] than we did. Our main impetus is that we wanted a new level of service.”

Barbara Shull, Fair Housing Foundation executive director, said she believed her group would improve on the work done by the Fair Housing Council, which she felt could have been more active in the community.

“Over the last two to four years, there have been some major problems and concerns with the Orange County fair housing organization,” she said. “We decided that [certain] cities needed to have a viable fair housing organization.”

“We didn’t have an opportunity to address the issues with Costa Mesa before they decided to take the contract elsewhere,” said Connie Der Torossian, the Fair Housing Council’s vice president of marketing. “We were doing outreach and education, but we weren’t doing a good job of reporting that.”

The Fair Housing Foundation investigates instances of housing discrimination, while also holding workshops to educate landlords on dealing with tenants.

The organization is neither pro-tenant nor pro-landlord, as it also educates tenants on the legality of price increases and on how to complete specific forms.

The contract between the city and the foundation went into effect July 1.

Ullman said Costa Mesa contracted the Fair Housing Foundation in hopes of bringing a more proactive approach to housing problems.

“I wanted to have something more than a phone-in service,” she said. “I wanted the contractor to really work with our nonprofit community and set up workshops for landlords and tenants.”

The Fair Housing Foundation has one branch in Long Beach and another in South Los Angeles.

The Fair Housing Foundation has also set up shop in San Clemente and Mission Viejo. All of the services it provides to the public are free.