Feds settle with California city and sheriff’s department over discriminatory rental housing program

By Deon J. Hampton, NBC News

The U.S. Department of Justice has reached a first-of-its-kind agreement with a California city and sheriff’s department over a “crime-free” rental housing program that led to Black people and Latinos being evicted from their homes based on allegations they had committed crimes.

The consent decree announced this week requires Hesperia, California, and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department to end the program. About 2,000 other communities in 48 states have similar ordinances, the Justice Department said, but it did not say whether any of those jurisdictions were under investigation.

The ordinances encourage or even require landlords to evict tenants based on allegations they committed crimes on or near the rental property, even if the alleged offenses are minor.

“We’ve seen cases where whole families were evicted because of allegations against one person,” said Deborah Archer, president of the American Civil Liberties Union and a law professor at New York University.

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The settlement is the result of a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by the Justice Department in 2019, alleging the city of Hesperia violated the federal Fair Housing Act and Title 6 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that prohibits discrimination.

The lawsuit was filed after the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development conducted an investigation into Hesperia’s program and found that Black renters were almost four times more likely to be evicted under the program than white renters; Latino renters were 29% more likely.

Hampton covers the story for NBC News.

Even when laws are fair, housing discrimination persists.

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