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L.A. County Housing Authority settles Antelope Valley discrimination case

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The Housing Authority of Los Angeles County will pay about $2 million to resolve allegations of Section 8 housing discrimination in the Lancaster and Palmdale areas as part of a recently announced settlement involving the cities, county and federal officials.

As part of the settlement, some people who lost their Section 8 housing vouchers over alleged discriminatory enforcement practices targeting Black residents will be reinstated into the program, according to the United States Department of Justice.

The parties will enter into a court-enforceable agreement aimed at ensuring that Black voucher holders in the Antelope Valley are not targeted because of their race, federal prosecutors said.

The Housing Authority, which administers the county’s Section 8 voucher program, will pay about $1.9 million in damages on behalf of itself and the cities, and a $25,000 civil penalty to the United States, according to the DOJ.

Combined with the DOJ’s previously announced settlement with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for related conduct, more than $2.6 million is available to compensate people who were harmed by discriminatory enforcement of the voucher program, officials said.

“Housing choice vouchers, also known as Section 8 vouchers, are meant to help families find homes in neighborhoods that provide greater opportunities for them and their children,” said Vanita Gupta, head of the DOJ’s civil rights division. “Such families should be welcomed in every community, including those in the Antelope Valley. No family living in Los Angeles County should fear having housing authority or law enforcement personnel show up at their homes simply because they are African American and use vouchers to pay their rent.”

The Justice Department’s complaint, recently filed in federal court in Los Angeles, alleges that between the years 2004 and 2011, in direct response to racially based public opposition to the growing presence of Black voucher holders living in Lancaster and Palmdale, the cities teamed with the housing authority and sheriff’s department in a targeted campaign of discriminatory enforcement against Black voucher holders to discourage them from living in the cities.

“This type of discrimination is fundamentally wrong and is inconsistent with American values of freedom and equality,” said U.S. Attorney Eileen M. Decker. “This settlement, together with an earlier settlement with the sheriff’s department, will ensure it does not recur, and will also provide more than $2.6 million to compensate those harmed.”

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