Mortgage Crisis Spawns Class Action Alleging Harassment of Minorities

The mortgage crisis has spawned an unusual federal class action by African-Americans in Antioch, Calif., a San Francisco suburb, alleging city intimidation and harassment of minorities who rent homes using federally subsidized Section 8 housing vouchers in an effort to force them out of the area.

"There is no question that the city and its police department are targeting Section 8 families, particularly African-American recipients," said Brad Seligman of the Impact Fund, a public interest law firm in Emeryville, Calif.

The real estate foreclosure crisis hit Antioch hard. In response, landlords and homeowners turned to renting homes to pay mortgages, often renting to tenants using federal rent subsidy vouchers, known as Section 8, according to Seligman.

By 2006, the inability of homeowners to sell homes allowed Section 8 participants to use their benefits to move out of urban centers to the suburb 40 miles west of San Francisco and to larger homes that might otherwise sit vacant, according to the suit.

The suit, Williams v. City of Antioch, No. C08-2301BZ (N.D. Calif.), states that the number of Section 8 Housing Choice vouchers grew in Antioch from 1,049 in 2003 to nearly 1,600 by 2007, representing more than 4 percent of the city's households. Many of the vouchers there are used by African-Americans, according to the suit. In the last five years, the number of African-Americans in Antioch has doubled, but still represents less than 15 percent of the city's total population.

During this period, Antioch officials began blaming city problems and crime in the city on Section 8 participants, according to the suit. The city council created a unit in the police department called the Community Action Team, to address "quality of life" issues in the town.

The suit, brought by five African-American women who rent homes using Section 8 vouchers, alleges that the city and police focused attention on people renting homes using the vouchers. The women say police looking for Section 8 violations subjected residents to warrantless searches of their homes. Police allegedly made threats to landlords who continued to accept the vouchers and they also allegedly intimidated renters with potential loss of benefits.

Along with the Impact Fund, the five women are represented by the ACLU of Northern California and Public Advocates, a public interest firm.

The city denied the suit's claims. "We emphatically reject the allegations by Public Advocates and the ACLU regarding our city's community-based policing efforts," said Lynn Tracy Nerland, Antioch city attorney in a prepared statement.

"We believe that any objective review of our city's policing efforts will reveal that these efforts are focused exclusively on criminal and/or dangerous behavior. Claims of other, sinister motivations are untrue and irresponsible," she said.

The suit seeks to enjoin the city and police from alleged targeting of Section 8 renters for investigation or threats. The suit also seeks damages and a declaration that the city actions violate state fair housing law.

Pamela A. MacLean
The National Law Journal
August 18, 2008