You need to be ever-watchful, because they are watching you. Make one false move -- no matter how innocuous -- and they'll get you.
Don't take my word for it. Ask Daniel Bader, a 55-year-old Newport Beach entrepreneur and commercial real estate broker.
"I find it kind of interesting how it kind of came looking for me," Bader says. "I didn't go looking for trouble; it found me."
We could be talking about any of life's various vexations, but for today let's zero in on the Fair Housing Council of Orange County and the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing, both of which have Bader rotating on the spit for an apartment rental ad he placed last summer on Craigslist, the online emporium for just about anything.
He owns a 1,300-square-foot upstairs-downstairs building on Coronado Street on Balboa Peninsula. It sounds like a fancy address, but it isn't. The rental space in question is roughly 430 square feet, but because it's close to the beach he can get $1,800 a month for it.
Last summer, he posted ads on Craigslist that listed the apartment as "well-suited for 1 or 2 professional adults" and "perfect for 1 or 2 professional adults."
Huge mistake.
The Orange County housing council, while making a sweep of Craigslist for discriminatory ads, cited Bader for violating state law that, among other things, prohibits indicating "any preference" based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, ancestry and familial status, source of income or disability.
"In terms of familial status," a council official says, "when he says it was well-suited for two professional adults, it sort of implies an indication that this would be for older people, two professional people, and it leans in that direction."
Sort of implies? An indication? Leans in that direction?
Why couldn't it be interpreted as nothing more than a heads-up? A mere suggestion for people plowing through tons of ads?
Or, more to the point, why couldn't it be interpreted as nothing at all? As nothing more than mundane language that anybody might put in an ad?
"When [the law] says preference, it means any preference," says council official Joel Ibanez. "The ad discourages, in terms of, say, a single-parent female. It suggests a preference, and that's the problem."
