Proposed legislation would ensure that California property owners no longer be forced to use “crime-free housing” rules to evict or exclude tenants with criminal histories, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Crime-free housing rules make it harder for renters, in particular African Americans and Latinos, to find affordable housing and keep it, said the bill’s author, Assemblywoman Tina McKinnor, D-Inglewood.
Such policies can force property owners to evict tenants or refuse to rent to those with a prior criminal record, said the Times story.
“It’s systemic racism. It’s a way to exclude Brown and Black people from living in their apartment buildings, living in their communities,” said McKinnor.
A 2020 Times investigation confirmed that crime-free housing laws, enacted in more than one-quarter of all locally governed areas in the state, disproportionately affected California’s Black and Latino residents.
The City of Hesperia cited rising crime rates as the reason to pass housing restrictions. But in Hesperia, as in other communities, approval of the policies occurred while crime rates were stable or decreasing, and Black or Brown populations were increasing, said the article.
The Hesperia rules required property owners to evict those suspected of criminal activity, even though the allegations did not lead to an arrest, charges or conviction.
An investigation by the Department of Housing and Urban Development determined that evictions of Black and Latino renters were more likely than evictions of White renters under the city of Hesperia’s program.
“Backers of AB1418 say that their intention is to bar specific crime-free housing rules that they believe are the most discriminatory and ensnare those who have not committed any crime or nuisance,” wrote the Times.
Alameda County already prohibits such rules and also prohibits the voluntary use of crime-free housing policies by landlords. However, property owners elsewhere in California can still voluntarily screen and exclude tenants based on their criminal histories unless local rules prohibit it.
