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WG property owners are charged with housing law violation
Lawsuit alleges that landlords of apartment building refused to rent to HIV-positive tenant
By Jessica Lyons
A San Jose man diagnosed with AIDS filed a lawsuit against the owners of Willow Glen's Curtiss Manor apartments last week, alleging they refused to rent to HIV-positive tenants.
The complaint filed on Nov. 2 alleges that owners Elmer and Jane Stovall violated housing discrimination laws when they rejected John Johnson, a San Jose man looking to rent an apartment, because he has AIDS.
According to Kyra Kazantzis, directing attorney of San Jose's Fair Housing Law Project and one of the fair-housing and disability-rights lawyers involved in the case, the Stovalls allegedly persuaded Johnson to reveal he is HIV-positive and then denied him housing.
"He was discriminated against because he had AIDS," Kazantzis says. "Landlords are not allowed to ask people about disabilities and health conditions--those questions are patently illegal. The questions point to a motive which is related, not to his ability to be a good tenant, but related to prejudice because of his HIV status."
After Johnson was denied the apartment last year, the Fair Housing Law Project sent test tenants to apply for an apartment at Curtiss Manor. In two separate instances, testers who said they were HIV-positive--but also reported higher incomes and better references--were denied housing, while testers who said they did not have the disease were offered an apartment, Kazantzis said.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and an injunction from U.S. District Judge James Ware forcing compliance with fair-housing laws.
By press time, Curtiss Manor owners Elmer and Jane Stovall had not returned phone calls from the Willow Glen Resident.
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
