DOJ sues San Bernardino county, sheriff for discrimination

The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit Monday alleging the city of Hesperia, San Bernardino County and its sheriff's department discriminated against African American and Latino renters in violation of the Fair Housing Act through an ordinance requiring landlords to evict families in which a member has committed a crime.

Filed in the Central District court, the lawsuit alleges Hesperia, "with substantial support from the sheriff's department, enacted a rental ordinance with the intent of addressing what one city council member called a 'demographical problem' -- the city's increasing African American and Latino population -- resulting in the evictions of numerous African American and Latino renters," according to a statement released by the department.

"Although the ordinance purported to target 'criminal activity,' the sheriff's department notified landlords to begin evictions of entire families, including children for conduct involving one tenant or even non-tenants, evictions of victims of domestic violence, and evictions based on mere allegations and without evidence of criminal activity," said the DOJ announcement.

The city had not been served by Monday afternoon, but Assistant City Manager Rachel Molina said in an email the allegations published on the DOJ website "are factually inaccurate."

"The city loves and embraces diversity in Hesperia," she said. "The crime-free ordinance in no way targeted anyone based on a protected class. The city intends to vigorously defend against the lawsuit."

Responding to the suit Monday, Public Information Officer Cindy Bachman of the San Bernardino County sheriff's department said, "We are aware of the lawsuit and disagree with the allegations. We intend to vigorously defend this in court."

The lawsuit alleges the sheriff's department used the ordinance -- which was in effect from 2016 to July 2017 when it was amended -- to target tenants living in areas of Hesperia, where most of the population were minorities. The sheriff's department allegedly exercised substantial discretion in enforcement to target African American and Latino renters. USA v. Hesperia City, 19CV02298 (C.D. Cal., filed Dec. 2, 2019).

U.S. Attorney Nicola T. Hanna said in the statement, "Protecting the public is one of the most important duties of local governments and police departments, and the public entrusts them with enormous power to carry out that duty. We will not allow them to abuse that power by depriving people of their rights."

Based on a study completed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, African American renters were almost four times as likely as non-Hispanic white renters to be evicted because of the ordinance, and Latino renters were 29% more likely than non-Hispanic white renters to be evicted, according to the complaint.

The complaint, submitted by U.S. Attorney General William Barr, asks that the defendants be enjoined from any further acts of discrimination in violation of the Fair Housing Act, victims are awarded damages and that civil penalties be imposed.