LOS ANGELES, Calif.—An Antelope Valley community group sued Lancaster and Palmdale officials today, alleging the cities engaged in practices meant to drive out Black and Latino residents.

The complaint was filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on behalf of the Community Action League, the California State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and two unidentified residents who allegedly faced racial discrimination.

The lawsuit challenges the cities’ policies in regard to more than 3,600 Black and Latino families using Section 8 housing subsidies in the area—practices the plaintiffs allege violate the federal Fair Housing Act and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act.

"For a city as diverse as Palmdale, that would be a futile position and one we do not pursue,'' said Palmdale Mayor James C. Ledford Jr. "All we're asking is accountability in the Section 8 program and we're making sure those provisions are being upheld,'' he said. "Inspections on all housing stock is just a common sense practice. It keeps everyone playing by the rules.''

A call for comment to a representative for the city of Lancaster was not immediately returned.

The Housing Choice Voucher Program, also known as Section 8, is meant to encourage economic and racial integration and to enable past victims of discrimination to live in communities of their own choosing.

But, according to lawyers for the plaintiffs, families taking their vouchers to Lancaster and Palmdale have been victims of harassment at the hands of housing authority investigators, sheriff’s deputies and local politicians.

“City officials have gone so far as to declare ‘war’ on Black and Latino families,” said Catherine Lhamon, director of plaintiff attorneys Public Counsel.

“Fifty years after courts outlawed racial segregation, Lancaster and Palmdale have turned back the clock, turning neighbor against neighbor in the process,” she said. “They should be building one community, not tearing it apart.”