SANTA MONICA (CNS) - The Santa Monica City Attorney’s Consumer Protection Division filed a lawsuit today against the owner and property managers of a Santa Monica apartment building, alleging violations of the city’s housing anti-discrimination ordinance and tenant harassment law.
The lawsuit, which names Ben Leeds, Fidel Alonso and Crenshaw Two, LLC as defendants, was filed on behalf of two disabled tenants whose names were not released. The tenants have lived in the building since 1982 and 1995, respectively.
Representatives for the landlords could not be immediately reached for comment.
The case is the second to be filed under the city’s new ordinance amendment protecting tenants with disabilities from housing discrimination.
The housing anti-discrimination ordinance, as amended on Nov. 28, requires landlords to provide to tenants reasonable accommodations based on their disabilities.
According to the lawsuit filed in Santa Monica Superior Court, the owners gave notice that they are taking away the parking spaces of two tenants with disabilities and forcing them to share a tandem parking space.
The tenants are not roommates, according to the suit.
With the assistance of the Consumer Protection Division, both tenants provided the landlords with medical documentation showing that due to the nature of their disabilities, they each needed an unshared parking space close to their units, according to city officials.
The lawsuit alleges that despite the documentation and the reasonableness of the parking request, the landlord refused to restore the tenants’ parking. The complaint also alleges that both tenants struggled last year to keep their parking from being taken away altogether.
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