Is 'crime-free' housing a crime?
Denying rentals to those with past criminal involvement is discriminatory and may violate the Fair Housing Act.
In Just Action, we discuss why landlords’ refusal to rent to all those with criminal records is unjust – our arrest and conviction policies are discriminatory and so basing tenancy decisions on these records is discriminatory. We also explain how this practice makes our communities less safe – lack of access to stable housing makes those who have committed crimes in the past more likely to do so in the future. This is why some communities have adopted ban the box or fair chance ordinances that prohibit the blanket refusal of tenancy to those with criminal records.
We also describe an opposite trend. Many communities have made it harder, not easier, for those with past criminal involvement to access housing. These jurisdictions have adopted “crime-free” housing ordinances – police-sponsored policies that allow and sometimes require landlords to evict or deny tenants who have had any contact with law enforcement or are associated with people who have had contact with law enforcement. Over two thousand cities across the country have adopted such rules.
Crime-free housing ordinances are discriminatory in effect and can be in intent as well. A study conducted by The Los Angeles Times examined the 147 cities in California with such rules and found a pattern – as blacks and Hispanics moved to suburbs, crime-free laws followed. Eighty-five percent of California’s cities that saw the largest increase in African American residents between 1990 and 2018 have passed such laws.
Often, as in Hesperia, California, a desert town of 100,000 located sixty miles from Los Angeles, the racially exclusive intent of the crime-free ordinance was made clear by proponents. In 2015 when the policy was adopted, a supportive city councilmember said it was necessary “to correct a demographical problem with people that are committing crimes in this community.” This at a time when crime rates were not increasing but the area’s black and Hispanic populations were.
The law required landlords to share prospective tenants’ names with the sheriff, who would then run a background check. If the sheriff uncovered that the individual had ever had contact with law enforcement, even if no arrest or conviction resulted, the landlord would be notified and instructed to deny tenancy or evict the tenant. This extended to tenants who called the police with domestic violence complaints and were then considered to have run-ins with law enforcement and evicted. The sheriff threatened landlords with misdemeanors for not removing such tenants. The Los Angeles Times reported one such case: an African American woman who called the police with domestic violence complaints was evicted after the sheriff’s department threatened to charge her landlord with a misdemeanor. The woman and her children moved into a hotel and then across the country when she couldn’t find a landlord in Hesperia who would rent to her.
While the ordinance was in place, African American renters were evicted at four times the rate of white renters.
In December 2022, the US Justice Department settled a complaint against Hesperia and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department which alleged that their crime-free housing ordinance discriminated against black and Hispanic renters, in violation of the Fair Housing Act. Under the settlement, the city and sheriff deny any wrongdoing, but have agreed to pay $1 million, $670,000 of which will be paid to tenants harmed by the program and $95,000 of which will go towards promoting fair housing. Hesperia has repealed its ordinance.
This is the first settlement of its kind that resulted from a challenge to a crime-free housing ordinance on grounds that it is racially discriminatory. More should follow.
Just Action focuses on what local activists can do in their own communities to redress segregation. Because litigation can be expensive and beyond the reach of most local community groups, it should not be the primary focus of racial justice advocates. However, lawsuits like the one against Hesperia are an important way to bring attention to discriminatory policies and send a message to communities that have adopted them or are considering doing so. Local activists in places with crime-free ordinances can help to collect stories about those who were denied tenancy under the rules, to build a case for challenging or repealing the policies. In other communities, advocates can use cases like Hesperia’s to fight efforts to pass crime-free ordinances if and when they arise. And all supporters of the redress of segregation can support local fair housing centers to ensure they have the resources needed to investigate and file lawsuits that can advance fair housing, including challenges to crime-free ordinances.