TRENTON -- The state Attorney General's Office has filed housing discrimination complaints against a real estate agency and three landlords, including a couple in Garfield.

Francesco and Rosa Grasso allegedly posted an advertisement on craigslist.com for space in their two-family house on Lincoln Place that read, in part, "Please no Section 8." Craigslist.com is a popular Web site where users can place ads for housing, personals and other announcements. The Grassos' ad referred to tenants who would use federal housing assistance to pay their rent.

The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination prohibits landlords from refusing to rent, sell or show a property based on the potential renter's race, religion, sex, physical disability, sexual orientation, marital status or familial status. In a statement released Thursday, Attorney General Zulima Farber said landlords also could not discriminate based on how a potential renter intended to pay, as long as the renter planned to pay from a legal source of funds. The maximum penalty is $10,000 for those who have not had a previous violation.

Two investigators from the Attorney General's Office called the number listed in the advertisement at different times, reached a woman who identified herself as Rosa and said that they planned to pay with Section 8 money, according to the news release. Both investigators allegedly were told that Section 8 funds would not be accepted. A third investigator, who did not specify how she would pay for the apartment, was allegedly asked by a woman who identified herself as Rosa if she would like to see the apartment.

The Division on Civil Rights within the Attorney General's Office also filed complaints against Century 21 On the River Realty, an Edgewater real estate firm, two agents employed by the firm and Jersey City landlord, Badawy M. Badawy for placing an advertisement that made clear children were not welcome in the Jersey City apartment Badawy was offering for rent.

As in the Garfield case, two state investigators posing as potential renters called the agency at different times and were allegedly told that children were not welcome in the apartment. In one case, Badawy allegedly conveyed the message in the presence of Century 21 agent Elizabeth Romero. In another case, Fausto Diaz, a real estate agent with the company, is alleged to have made the statement.

The third case involved landlords Gerald and Nancy Rubin, who allegedly told two state investigators that only childless tenants were welcome in a North Plainfield apartment they were offering.

"There's an awareness that the Internet in general and Web sites like craigslist in particular are vehicles that people are using to advertise available housing and to seek out housing," said Lee Moore, a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office. "We will make a commitment to being vigilant about that and ensuring that while it's being utilized in that way, it's not also being utilized to violate the law by discriminating."

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