LOS ANGELES – Housing rights organizations in Los Angeles are suing the city’s public housing agency. The suit accuses the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) of denying language assistance to limited-English speaking clients.
The plaintiffs, including two low-income tenants, say HACLA’s failure to provide language services violates state law and puts their housing status at risk.
“When I received related notices or met with my caseworker, I was not properly provided with interpretation, let alone translated documents,” said Hyun Joo, 55, one of the two tenants involved in the suit.
“Even when I went in with an appointment,” she added, speaking in Korean, “if I could not communicate in English at the front desk, there were times when I had to wait indefinitely in the lobby or could not meet my caseworker at all.”
The Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA), the Law Office of Autumn Elliott, and the Western Center on Law & Poverty filed the lawsuit on May 29 against HACLA and its president, Lourdes Castro Ramírez.
The Korean Resource Center is listed as a co-plaintiff in the suit. The organization says it has been forced to expend resources helping families denied language support by HACLA.
The lawsuit claims HACLA violated California Government Code Section 11135, which prohibits discrimination in programs funded by the state, and the Fair Employment and Housing Act, which bars discrimination specifically in housing and employment.
Heeyoung “Linda” Park is the LAFLA attorney handling the case. She said while HACLA’s website and its own internal policies state that professional interpretation services should be provided, in practice that was often not the case.
Clients, including Joo and her co-plaintiff, Eva Oceguera, who is originally from Mexico, were therefore forced to rely on English-speaking relatives. In Joo’s and Oceguera’s case, that meant their school-age children.
“The practice of telling people to bring minor children or acquaintances as interpreters also violates HACLA’s own policy and language access obligations,” Park said, noting the legal complexities of Housing 8 rules and requirements. “If they are misunderstood, a person could lose housing assistance,” Park added.
‘So much pressure’
Joo first came to Los Angeles from her native South Korea hoping to work as a professional makeup artist in Hollywood. While studying she met a man. The two fell in love and soon after she became pregnant with her daughter.
Joo says her dreams of working in Hollywood gave way to hopes of marriage and raising a family. Those hopes faded, however, after her partner became increasingly abusive. Joo left her home, staying with her daughter at a woman’s shelter.
In 2023, Joo’s life was again upended after she was involved in a car accident that left her with injuries to her head and upper body. Unable to work, she soon fell behind on rent. Eviction notices began to appear shortly thereafter.
Fearing she might end up homeless Joo applied for and received a Section 8 Emergency Housing Voucher — designed to rapidly house vulnerable groups, including survivors of domestic violence — through HACLA. But navigating the labyrinthine process of renewing her voucher proved a challenge given Joo’s limited English and the lingering impacts of the accident.
Joo says HACLA offered no support, despite its own internal policies stating clients have the right to free interpretation services when needed. She was eventually forced to rely on her teenage daughter.
“My daughter has been afraid of meeting adults since experiencing domestic violence,” Joo said. “I also did not want my daughter, who should be studying at school, to interpret while watching her mother ask for help.”
As LAFLA attorney Joann Lee notes, “HACLA’s own policy discourages the use of informal interpreters and requires official interpretation services and procedures to verify the accuracy of interpretation.”
At one stage, Joo recounts how she mistakenly entered incorrect information on one of many forms required as part of the renewal process.
“They repeatedly told me that I could be punished if I submitted false documents and required me to submit a written statement,” Joo said. “In the end, I felt so much pressure that I gave up renewing the voucher.”
Ensuring no one else suffers
In response to the lawsuit, HACLA said in a statement that it does not comment on pending litigation but is “dedicated to doing all we can to meet the needs of our community and uphold our values around inclusivity and accessibility, including language access.”
HACLA also said its Board of Commissioners approved a revised language access services policy last month, adding that the policy “reflects our ongoing commitment to ensuring access and information for our diverse population.”
Under the revised policy, HACLA will provide free oral interpretation in all languages, translate documents vital to program participation and pause response deadlines when a client requests language services. HACLA will also designate a coordinator to oversee compliance with its language access plan and handle related complaints and appeals.
“The core of this lawsuit is to require HACLA to actually carry out the language services it has promised,” said Park of LAFLA.
For her part, Joo stressed the lawsuit is not about personal compensation.
“Seeing [others] treated the way I was treated made me deeply upset,” she said. “My greatest hope is that no one else suffers simply because they cannot speak English.”
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