A �family� with children is defined as any household that includes one or more child(ren) under 18 and one of the following people: the child�s parent or another person with legal custody or a person designated by the parents of the child to care for the them, pregnant women and/or adults who intend to take custody of a child at some point in the near future.

Discrimination: can include both refusing to rent or sell a residence to families with children and/or treating families with children differently than other residents.

Occupancy Standards: Families with Children and Overcrowding: The Uniform Housing Code is part of California Housing Law and it addresses the question of occupancy in terms of size. It is less restrictive than the Housing and Urban Development's national guide- lines (not compulsory, but recommended) which call for a "two-per-bedroom-plus-one" standard.

You can use HUD�s guidelines or develop your own policy as long it is applied equally. However you can not use overcrowding as a excuse to deny renting to a family with children if you are renting another apartment to the same number of adults without children.

Remember: Generally, you cannot refuse to rent to an applicant because there are children in the family. Moreover, the requirements for renting must be the same for families with children as for any other applicant or tenant.

The one exception to this rule is for housing that has been specifically designed for senior citizens (persons 55 and older or 62 and older). To qualify as "senior housing", a housing accommodation must meet specific legally-defined requirements which may include a minimum number of units, age-based residency limits and design features.

Therefore, it is illegal to:
� Show preference in advertisements for adults or singles.
� Discourage families with children by:
�� -Saying bad things about the house.
�� -Not returning calls.
�� -Delaying or missing appointments.
�� -Claiming no housing is available when in fact it is.
�� -Requiring stricter qualifications to apply.
�� -Charging higher security deposits or rental charges.
�� -Requiring different lease terms or house rules.
�� -Restricting children ac- cess to common spaces.
� Limit families with children to certain building floors.
� Refuse to rent to families with children because of the cost of safety measures they have to comply with.
� Evict tenants because they have children.

But you can:
� Set a number of occupants based on size of the apart ment or follow the �two-per-bedroom-plus-one" standard.
� Warn parents they will be held responsible for all damages incurred by their children.
� Require that small children must be supervised by a responsible person.
� Write a policy and apply it to everybody.
� Be sure you do not use criteria that for all purposes forbid children. For example, one person per bedroom, counting a couple as one.