Does a Fair Chance Housing Law Limit Criminal History Screening in Gardena or Hawthorne?

Published July 15, 2026

No county fair chance housing ordinance covers Gardena or Hawthorne. Statewide FEHA rules on criminal history still apply.

Neither Gardena nor Hawthorne is covered by a Fair Chance Housing ordinance today. Los Angeles County's Fair Chance Ordinance, effective September 3, 2024, only regulates criminal history screening by employers in the county's unincorporated pockets, not rental housing, and it does not reach incorporated cities like Gardena or Hawthorne at all. A separate Los Angeles City motion to bar landlords from asking about criminal history has been introduced and revived since 2022 but has not been enacted. What does apply everywhere in California, including Gardena and Hawthorne, is the statewide Fair Employment and Housing Council's criminal history regulations under 2 CCR sections 12264 through 12271.

Two different "fair chance" laws, easy to mix up

Los Angeles County's Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers took effect September 3, 2024. It restricts when an employer located or doing business in the county's unincorporated areas can ask about a job applicant's criminal history. It is an employment law, not a housing law, and its geographic reach stops at the county's unincorporated communities such as East Los Angeles, Florence-Graham, and Willowbrook. Gardena and Hawthorne are incorporated cities with their own municipal governments, so this county ordinance never applied to rental housing decisions in either one. Separately, the Los Angeles City Council has floated its own Fair Chance Housing ordinance that would bar landlords citywide from asking about an applicant's criminal history when renting an apartment. That motion was introduced in 2022, expired, and was revived in 2024, but as of this writing it has not been adopted into the Los Angeles Municipal Code, and it would only apply within the city of Los Angeles regardless.

What actually governs criminal history screening in Gardena and Hawthorne

Without a local ordinance in either city, the operative rules come from state law. California's Fair Employment and Housing Council (now the Civil Rights Council) adopted regulations, effective January 1, 2020, found at 2 CCR sections 12264 through 12271, that govern how a housing provider may use criminal history information under the Fair Employment and Housing Act. Those regulations prohibit blanket policies like an outright "no felons" rule, bar consideration of arrests that did not lead to a conviction, and require an individualized assessment of a conviction's nature, how long ago it occurred, and its relevance to tenancy before it can be used to deny an applicant. A landlord in Gardena or Hawthorne who runs a background check and automatically rejects anyone with any criminal record, without that individualized look, is exposed to a fair housing complaint under state law even though no local ordinance names either city.

The state fair housing enforcement backdrop

This is not a theoretical risk. California's Civil Rights Department has actively tested rental housing providers across Los Angeles and Ventura counties for exactly this kind of blanket criminal history exclusion, and its enforcement work has led to reform agreements with more than two dozen apartment complexes. The department's public guidance on criminal history and fair housing walks through what a compliant screening policy looks like, and it is worth reading before you finalize a tenant screening criteria sheet, regardless of which city the property sits in.

What this means for you

If you manage rentals in Gardena or Hawthorne, do not assume you are in the clear just because neither city has adopted a fair chance housing ordinance. The state regulation already requires an individualized review of any criminal conviction before it can factor into a denial, and it already forbids using arrests that never led to a conviction. Watch the Los Angeles City Council's Fair Chance Housing motion too. If it passes, it will only bind the city of Los Angeles, but it is a signal of where county and possibly future countywide policy could head next.

If you would rather have someone else keep your screening criteria current as these rules shift, that is part of what we handle for owners.

This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Confirm with a licensed professional before you act.

Sources

1. Los Angeles County Fair Chance Act (employer ordinance) overview
2. Littler, County of Los Angeles Enacts a Sweeping Fair Chance Ordinance for Unincorporated Areas
3. ClearStar, Los Angeles to Consider Fair Chance Housing Ordinance That Would Affect Tenant Screening
4. California Civil Rights Department, Fair Housing and Criminal History FAQ (PDF)
5. California Civil Rights Department, undercover fair housing testing and criminal history reform

Last verified: July 2026.

Topics: compliance, tenant screening, fair housing, gardena, hawthorne

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