One of the new ads from the D.C. Office of Human Rights.

At one point or another, we’ve all had to submit to credit checks when trying to rent an apartment or a house. It makes sense—a landlord might not want to trust that someone who never pays off their debts will faithfully pay rent. But under D.C. law, there are a number of other factors that landlords can’t use to determine whether or not they want to rent to you.

This week the D.C. Office of Human Rights kicked off an advertising campaign aimed at educating residents about anti-discrimination laws in housing, reducing incidents of discrimination and increasing reporting of the incidents that occur.

Appearing in eight D.C. newspapers, the ad campaign stresses that being denied housing on the basis of any of 19 protected characteristics—from race and religion to sexual orientation and gender identification—is illegal and can be reported to the Office of Human Rights, the agency charged with enforcing the 1977 D.C. Human Rights Act.

“For some residents these ads will appear to have blatant discriminatory language, whereas other readers may be surprised it is discrimination,” said Gustavo Velasquez, Director of the D.C. Office of Human Rights, in a statement. “Unfortunately, housing discrimination still happens, and we hope these ads can educate both targets of discrimination and those who may unknowingly have discriminatory lending or rental practices.”

Last year, the office handled 48 housing discrimination complaints, 17 of which were related to disability status, eight to race, seven to source of income, four to national origin, and three piece for gender, religion and sexual orientation. According to Eliot Imse, a spokesman for the Office of Human Rights, those complaints probably a represent a small fraction of the incidents that occurred, though.

“Many people in the District do not know they are protected,” he said.