Disposition of Section 8 settlements now with the judge
Lancaster is lone holdout
PALMDALE—An agreement reached in a discrimination lawsuit between city officials and representatives of Antelope Valley residents who are part of the Section 8 Choice Voucher program is now in the hands of the federal judge overseeing the suit.
The agreement was reached last week, a week after the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a similar agreement.
The judge will now have an opportunity to vet the settlements, and when approved, they will go into effect immediately.
The lawsuit was filed in June last year against the cities of Lancaster and Palmdale, accusing officials of using intimidation and harassment tactics with the help of the L.A. County Sheriff’s department against Section 8 families, particularly African Americans and Hispanics.
The lawsuit was filed by The Community Action League (TCAL), the California state cconference of the NAACP and a number of Antelope Valley families impacted.
The city of Palmdale says the settlement vindicates the municipality. “Palmdale has always condemned discrimination and continues to condemn discrimination in any form,” said Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford. “The city of Palmdale welcomes people from diverse backgrounds, including people who participate in the Section 8 program.”
“The city of Palmdale never belonged in this lawsuit, and I believe this settlement is indicative of that fact,” said Palmdale City Attorney William Matthew Ditzhazy. “The city will not pay plaintiffs or their 21 attorneys a dime and the city did not agree to do anything of substance that it wasn’t already doing or that had not already been surrendered by the politically correct crowd at the county of Los Angeles.”
“The plaintiffs’ claim that the city of Palmdale used several other public agencies as a ‘tool’ to advance a nefarious agenda is nothing more than an unfounded conspiracy theory,” stated Assistant City Attorney Noel Doran. “Needless to say, this was the most creative cause of action I have ever seen conjured up against the city.”
“While the City Council continues to believe that this is a frivolous lawsuit and that the city of Palmdale has acted at all times in a lawful manner, it also understands that in certain cases, like this, discretion is the better part of valor,” said Ledford. “We decided it was better to agree to the status quo than waste further taxpayer dollars to achieve the same result in a couple of years.”
According to Public Counsel, one of the legal firms representing the plaintiffs, under the agreement, Palmdale will:
•Not seek information about which of its residents participate in the Section 8 program; this will prevent any city employee from specifically targeting Section 8 participants for discriminatory treatment.
•The city will stop using its own funds to pay for a dedicated Section 8 investigator in Palmdale, and will instead allow the county housing authority to take full responsibility to police Section 8 compliance in the city.
•Plaintiffs will dismiss Palmdale from the lawsuit, leaving only the city of Lancaster to face racial discrimination claims.
On the city of Lancaster’s website, Mayor R. Rex Parris, said he was disappointed that Palmdale officials settled.
“I am extremely disappointed with the actions and comments made by the city of Palmdale regarding their recent settlement agreement in the Section 8 enforcement case,” said Mayor Parris. “Their decision to acquiesce gives comfort to criminals perpetrating housing fraud in the Antelope Valley. Furthermore, Palmdale has thrown under the bus the deputy sheriffs and Section 8 investigators who have successfully fought fraud throughout the Antelope Valley.”
“The unintended consequence of the city’s actions and statements is that they have become a mouthpiece for the plaintiffs, falsely giving credence to offensive claims that the Sheriff’s department and citizens of Palmdale and Lancaster are racist. In fact, recent reports show that the city of Lancaster is the most integrated city in Los Angeles County,” added Mayor Parris.
“Like the city of Palmdale, we recognized that the County Housing Authority had insufficient resources assigned to investigate fraud and other violations of federal regulations, and anyone who expects three investigators to enforce the requirements of 22,000 Section 8 vouchers countywide is sadly mistaken. Together, our cities took steps to remedy this situation by agreeing to pay the costs of added investigators assigned to our community, which were successful in over 91 percent of their cases. However, Palmdale’s agreement to settle this case now simply allows criminals committing housing fraud to act with impunity in the Antelope Valley.”
LANCASTER, Calif.—A few weeks ago Mayor R. Rex Parris said something at a Lancaster City Council meeting that rubbed some residents the wrong way. He asked a representative of the Department of Housing, if there is or could be a law instituted that would revoke Section 8 vouchers from parents whose minor children are not attending school. From there the backlash began.
LANCASTER, Calif.—At last week’s Lancaster City Council meeting, Mayor R. Rex Parris asked Dorian Jenkins, deputy executive director of housing programs with the Community Development Commission of the County of Los Angeles, if there was a way to confiscate Section 8 vouchers from tenants who did not enroll their children in school. He asked Jenkins if he would look into federal enforcement of state laws requiring children to attend school. Parris said that it would be beneficial for the whole community.
LANCASTER, Calif.—Tuesday night, the City Council Chamber was filled with an ethnically diverse group of Lancaster residents and an unusual number of Sheriff’s deputies lined the back wall of the room.
City officials proposed Ordinance No. 953 two weeks ago in response to suspected gang-related shootings and supposed intimidation within the community.
African Americans are the third largest ethnic group in the city of Lancaster. At 19.2 percent of the population (29,263 people), they trail Whites (56.5 percent) and Hispanics (36.5 percent).
Like Black communities around the nation, Lancaster residents experience highs that they applaud and challenges they feel need addressing. As the April 10 elections draw closer, some key community leaders spoke out about what they want from the candidates.
The Antelope Valley has been battered by negative press regarding complaints of discrimination and abuse of power on part of authorities in Section 8 housing. A lawsuit was filed by a local organization, The Community Action League (TCAL) in conjunction with the local chapter of the NAACP brought the concerns to light.
Since the issue was made public, the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors decided to suspend funding for Section 8 investigators for both Palmdale and Lancaster until a thorough investigation was completed.
