The United States Department of Justice has achieved a first-of-its-kind agreement with a California city and sheriff’s department about a “crime-free” rental housing program that resulted in Black and Latino residents being evicted from their houses based on claims of criminal behaviour.
The agreement reached this week compels Hesperia, California, and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department to discontinue the program. According to the Justice Department, over 2,000 other localities in 48 states have identical legislation, although it did not specify if any of those jurisdictions were under investigation.
The rules encourage or even oblige landlords to evict renters who are accused of committing crimes on or near the rental property, even if the alleged offences are minor.
“We’ve seen cases where whole families were evicted because of allegations against one person,” said Deborah Archer, head of the American Civil Liberties Union and a New York University law professor.
Officials from Hesperia could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon. The sheriff’s office issued a statement saying it couldn’t comment since the case had not yet been formally dismissed by a federal judge.
The settlement follows the Justice Department’s filing of a federal civil rights complaint in 2019 alleging that the city of Hesperia violated the federal Fair Housing Act and Title 6 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which forbids discrimination.
The complaint was brought after the US Department of Housing and Urban Development investigated Hesperia’s program and discovered that black renters were nearly four times more likely to be evicted than white renters, with Latino renters being 29% more likely.
“This settlement sends a message to communities across the country that these ordinances and programs are harmful and illegal and should force them to rethink what they’re doing,” said Archer.
According to the Justice Department’s lawsuit, the sheriff’s department’s “eviction campaign” included a document listing more than 250 people designated for eviction.
The program in Hesperia required rental property owners to evict tenants who received notice from the sheriff’s department that the tenants had engaged in alleged criminal activity on or near the property, regardless of whether the allegations resulted in an arrest, charge, or conviction, according to a news release from the Department of Justice.
According to federal investigators, it also encouraged landlords to evict entire families when just one household member engaged in alleged criminal conduct, including survivors of domestic violence.
“These ordinances can uproot lives, force families into homelessness and result in loss of jobs, schooling and opportunities for people who are disproportionately low-income people of colour,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke in a statement.
According to the Justice Department, in one case, a Black lady frequently phoned the police because she did not feel secure with her partner at her home.
The sheriff’s department subsequently notified her landlord of the domestic disturbances and threatened him with a misdemeanor charge for breaching the crime-free ordinance.
According to federal officials, the landlord then evicted the woman and her children. The family relocated into a motel and attempted to rent another property in Hesperia, but her applications were continuously denied, according to the Justice Department.
She was forced to uproot her life, leave a house full of furnishings behind, and travel across the country because she was unable to rent another home for her family, according to federal officials.
“As this settlement makes clear, the Justice Department will continue to fight discriminatory and unlawful ‘crime-free’ ordinances across the country and work to ensure that everyone has fair and equal access to housing,” said Clarke.
