California Landlord Accused of Evicting Child Care Provider Settles Discrimination Complaint

For eight years, Mariam Younathan ran a child care business out of a four-bedroom house she was renting in the San Joaquin Valley city of Manteca.

Younathan said she was a good tenant: she always paid her rent on time and kept the house in tip-top shape to ensure a clean and safe environment for the kids. But when she asked her landlord to fix a couple of appliances two years ago, Younathan said he blamed the wear and tear on the constant presence of children in the house.

Then, he gave her an ultimatum.

“He stated that I could stay, but not the day care,” Younathan said.

When she balked at his demand, Younathan said the landlord retaliated by serving her an eviction notice, which gave her less than three months to move out.

She filed a housing discrimination complaint with the California Civil Rights Department, which announced last week that the landlord agreed to a settlement, paying her $80,000 in damages and undergoing training on fair housing laws.

Landlord Jose Escamilla Sanchez denies any wrongdoing, according to his attorney, Anthony Gonsalves, and only agreed to settle to avoid incurring more legal costs.

“He and his family have been traumatized by this entire process. The result of this baseless complaint and flawed findings will result in my client suffering economic hardship,” Gonsalves wrote in an email to KQED.

The settlement is one of the first that California’s Civil Rights Department has reached in enforcing a state law intended to deter landlords, homeowners’ associations and other housing providers from refusing to rent to in-home child care providers.

The law also forbids cities and counties from imposing business fees or zoning permits in order to use the property for an in-home day care.

Lawmakers enacted the law six years ago to encourage more providers to open after the 2008 housing market collapse led to a nearly 30% drop in licensed child care homes.

But despite these protections, the Child Care Law Center in Berkeley reports that it continues to receive complaints — 81 so far this year — from in-home child care providers who said they experienced housing discrimination or unlawful requirements from their local government.

“There is no doubt that people are being dissuaded or prevented from providing this kind of service because of a lack of understanding of the law, both the rights of child care providers and the obligations of landlords,” said Kevin Kish, director of the state Civil Rights Department.

After getting the eviction notice, Younathan said she tried to relocate and contacted several people who listed their homes for rent on Zillow. She said they either didn’t reply or outright told her they don’t allow tenants to run an in-home day care.

“I was like, ‘Just so you know, we have rights as child care providers. You can’t not rent to me just because of that,” she said. “But do I go after every person that refused me? How do I go about doing that?”

The pressure took a toll on her mental health. Younathan said she worried about not finding another house to continue serving the eight families that relied on her for child care. The job helped her support her 84-year-old father and college-age daughter, who live in the house with her.

“It’s not just losing your home. I’m losing my income, I’m losing my business,” she said. “I went through a lot. I’ve never experienced anxiety in my life, and my daughter got to see me have panic attacks.”

Younathan hired an attorney to help her stay in the house until she could find another rental. Then a neighbor told her about a house being built less than a mile away. Younathan’s brother helped her buy it, and she moved in a year ago.

Meanwhile, Sanchez fixed up his house and rented it out “at today’s fair market rental value,” his lawyer said.

Younathan said she’s relieved, but still recovering from her ordeal. She said she still sees a therapist for anxiety.

“It’s not something easy just to get over, it’s going to take time,” she said.

When she moved to her new home, the inspection and license renewal process delayed her reopening by a month. Most of her families found alternative child care during that period and have since returned, she said, but some left permanently as a result of the disruption.

Lynn Sherman, a parent whose son attends Younathan’s day care, said she took time off without pay from her law enforcement job when relatives couldn’t help her out.

“It’s hard to find a reputable person or somebody that you trust with your kids, so the fact that I was able to leave him [at Younathan’s day care] and not have to worry if he’s going to be OK meant a great deal to me,” she said.

Sherman called Younathan “my backbone,” and said that without the sometimes 10 to 11 hours of care that she provides for her son, “I wouldn’t be able to do what I get to do for a living.”