Wenyuan Wu, executive director of the nonprofit Californians for Equal Rights Foundation (CFER), says her team has partnered with the Pacific Legal Foundation in this lawsuit against the "City of San Diego First-Time Homebuyer Program for Middle-Income, Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) Households" assistance project.
"The lawsuit challenges three co-defendants, including the City of San Diego, the San Diego Housing Commission, and the Housing Commission under the City of San Diego," Wu details.
The public housing assistance program, which started in 2023, is designed to give first-time homebuyers government-endorsed cash assistance in down payments and closing costs of up to $40,000, but white homebuyers are not eligible.
"It violates the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which provides equal protection of the laws," notes Wu.
She says her team is representing one or more first-time perspective homebuyers in the San Diego housing market who otherwise would have qualified for government assistance in closing costs and down payments if they were not white.
CFER, which focuses on policy monitoring, legal advocacy, and more on topics around equal rights and merit, says no government should have the authority to favor people solely based on race. In fact, this is the fourth case the organization has brought against California public agencies in its tireless effort to defend equality.
