This week, the results of a two-year Justice Department investigation of alleged housing discrimination in Los Angeles County and cities of Lancaster and Palmdale, California were released. The investigation revealed that local housing officials and police harassed and intimidated minority residents who receive Section 8 vouchers and the DOJ has ordered these municipalities to pay $12.5 million in damages to these tenants, an order which the cities are refusing to follow. In a recent
interview with NPR's Celeste Headlee, Richard Winton of the
Los Angeles Times reported that residents had reported home visits by as many as eight housing officials at once and discrimination in housing availability in the area (known as Antelope Valley) based on race. In one particular egregious instance, a deputy posted a picture of a resident's car and garage on a derogatory Facebook page, which prompted racial epithets directed at that tenant as well as the destruction of property and abject racially-motivated humiliation.
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Will the new DOJ findings encourage Lancaster and the
Antelope Valley to return to its progressive slogan?
Photo Credit: Arcadia Publishing |
The county and cities are refusing to pay the amount order by the Justice Department. If the municipalities and the federal government cannot reach a negotiated settlement or if the municipalities do not comply, Winton states that the result could be a court-enforced forced consent decree or appointment of a monitor to oversee local officials and the sheriff's department and issue outside audits. Antelope Valley has had a contentious
recent history of housing discrimination and, though the information gleaned from the DOJ's investigation is distressing, perhaps a settlement in which local officials compensate victims of housing discrimination will spur meaningful change in the region's housing practices and approach to building one community in which Housing Choice status is no longer a troubling lever of discrimination.
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