HUD is the federal door. A local group is often the faster intake.

You still have rights in this unit. Write the date, who said or did it, and the address. Keep the listing, the texts, and the denial. If the paper also names a court, that is a second door — legal aid, Stay Housed LA, or Oregon Law Help — the same day. Discrimination and eviction can both be true. They are still two files.

Danger: 911. Crisis: 988. Domestic violence: 1-800-799-7233.

HUD’s Fair Housing Act overview is the primary source. We cite it. We do not try to outrank hud.gov for the name of the statute. The Act prohibits discrimination in nearly all housing — renting, buying, mortgages, housing assistance — based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, and disability.

HUD takes complaints online, by mail, and by phone. Filing is free. Anyone who charges you to file a HUD complaint is a reason to leave. There are filing windows. Those windows run from when the discrimination happened. We do not reprint HUD’s deadline here, because reprinting a number that later changes is how people miss a window.

A HUD complaint is not an appearance in Housing Court. HUD does not stop a lockout by itself. File both tracks if both apply.

Housing Rights Center (housingrightscenter.org/get-help) is a fair-housing organization for Los Angeles County. They publish a Housing Rights Hotline and in-person clinics. On the get-help page we opened, they list clinics in Alhambra, Carson, El Monte, Inglewood, Lakewood, and Palmdale, plus offices that include Los Angeles, Ventura, and Pasadena. Clinics move. Confirm locations and hours with them.

HRC’s mission names characteristics beyond the federal seven, including some California adds — among them source of income, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, ancestry, age, and others they list. Those extras live in state or local law, not in the federal Act. Confirm the current local list with HRC or HUD. This desk does not invent a class list.

HRC’s own get-help page refers eviction notices to Stay Housed LA. Believe that map. Discrimination is HRC. An unlawful detainer is Stay Housed or legal aid.

In Oregon the local fair-housing door is the Fair Housing Council of Oregon. Community Alliance of Tenants is a tenants union, not FHCO. CAT educates and organizes. FHCO takes discrimination. Oregon Law Help takes the FED.

It is not a rent-stabilization complaint. In Los Angeles, LAHD administers the Rent Stabilization Ordinance and code. HRC does not decide whether your unit is under RSO.

It is not 211. 211 finds rent and shelter. HUD and HRC take discrimination.

It is not the National Tenants Bill of Rights. That document is a campaign. The Fair Housing Act is already the law.