The other kind of home equity
Marin-based fair-housing agency investigates discrimination and fights for housing rights
By Jean Saylor Doppenberg
F ew of us have likely Northern California (FHANC) stays busy representing individuals who reach out to them for help when they have been turned down for an apartment or other housing. “We handle individual advocacy, mostly for renters, but they can experienced blatant housing discrimination, yet the practice is alive and well in the North Bay. So much so that Fair Housing Advocates of
founded nearly 40 years ago. “Our agency also looks into lending discrimination, such as by a bank, in which case we do in-home appraisals.” FHANC’s territory includes Sonoma, Marin and Solano counties, but it receives calls from individuals in other Bay Area counties also, whom it refers to neighboring housing advocacy agencies. “Our focus used to be only Marin, but in 2015 we expanded outward. We also do some work in Alameda County. We provide information to anyone that calls us.”
also be living in homeowners associations (HOAs),” says Julia Howard-Gibbon, a supervising attorney for FHANC, which was
December 2024
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