COLUMN ONE : Housing Bias With a Twist : Complaints are increasing about immigrant landlords who close the door to renters who are not from their homeland.

"Fair housing officials say they are concerned about increasing complaints like Leigh's about immigrant landlords who prefer to rent to others from their homeland. Officials say they are also receiving accusations of immigrants who rent to white "outsiders" but not to blacks."

"Immigrants are hardly responsible for the majority of the housing discrimination in the United States--"99% of the problems are caused by whites born here," says Shanna Smith, executive director of the National Fair Housing Alliance, an umbrella group based in Washington."

"With immigrant bias becoming a more common complaint wherever newcomers cluster, "it needs airing," said Michael F. Dennis, compliance director for the Montgomery County Human Relations Commission in Maryland. "This is an up-and-coming problem.""

Fair housing officials are receiving growing complaints about immigrant landlords who allegedly prefer renting to applicants from their own ethnic backgrounds while discriminating against others, including both white and Black applicants. A white apartment seeker reported experiencing what she perceived as racial discrimination when observing Asian applicants receive preferential treatment at a mid-Wilshire building. While experts emphasize that immigrants are responsible for only a small fraction of housing discrimination compared to native-born whites, this emerging pattern warrants attention as newcomer communities expand. California and federal laws prohibit rental discrimination based on race, national origin, ancestry, and religion, with maximum state penalties of $1,000 per person per violation, though enforcement remains challenging.

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