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The Department of Justice is suing the suburb and proposing a consent decree following alleged discrimination, and state lawmakers also passed legislation this session to prevent cities from penalizing people for emergency calls.
Hundreds of communities across the U.S. have for several decades tried to reduce crime, fight gangs and tackle noise and other neighborhood problems through the use of “crime-free" or “public nuisance” laws encouraging and allowing landlords to evict renters when police or emergency crews are repeatedly called to the same addresses. Long the subject of criticism that such policies are ineffective and enforced more harshly in poor neighborhoods and against people of color, the ordinances are now under scrutiny as sources of mental health discrimination. Last November...
Nuisance property laws and similar policies punish vaguely defined activities with eviction. They tend to increase homelessness, reduce safety and promote segregation.
Starting Jan. 1, California will make crime-free housing laws unenforceable, ending local rules long criticized as unfair and racially discriminatory.
Adopted in the 1990s, it aimed to reduce crime in housing complexes, but some called it discriminatory.