The ACLU of Southern California has won a major victory for low-income residents of HUD-subsidized housing. At a news conference this morning, the ACLU announced the signed settlement agreement in Des Verney vs Alliance Housing Management [97-8576 AAH (Mcx)], a federal lawsuit filed last November on behalf of three residents of Holiday Venice, a HUD-subsidized unit in Venice California.

Under terms of the settlement, the housing management company will not require residents to sign the new lease agreement "mandated by HUD" holding them responsible for the crimes of visitors. Specifically, language added by Alliance Housing Management under what they termed new HUD mandated rules, would have subjected plaintiffs and their children to eviction based on the acts, occurring as far as three blocks away, of guests committed without tenants' knowledge or ability to prevent them.

Speaking at the news conference, ACLU staff attorney Daniel Tokaji said, "We hope that this settlement sends a loud and clear message: Public housing tenants have the same right as anyone else to be secure in their homes. It is a great victory, not only for these three women but for the Bill of Rights."

The lawsuit charged that the new mandatory lease agreement violated the constitution and current federal statutes and regulations for HUD-subsidized housing because it penalized tenants for conduct over which they have no control. The settlement prohibits the housing management company from retaliating in any way if residents do not sign the addendum. In addition, Alliance Housing agrees not to enforce the addendum against any other tenants of the Holiday Venice properties.

ACLU staff attorney Rocio Cordoba said at the news conference, "This settlement vindicates the constitutional rights of lowincome residents nationwide who refuse to become casualties of extreme "onestrike" eviction policies, such as the one advanced in the challenged lease addendum. All tenants regardless of economic status have the same fundamental rights to freely invite friends and family members into their homes without fear of eviction over circumstances beyond their control."

The federal lawsuit was filed last November on behalf of three residents of Holiday Venice, a HUD-subsidized housing unit located in Venice, California. The three women were threatened with eviction because they refused to sign a new lease agreement.

On December 10, Alliance Housing sent the ACLU of Southern California a letter saying it would withdraw its requirement that residents of its government-subsidized properties sign the new lease agreement. This settlement finalizes that agreement for all residents of the Venice development and sets a powerful precedent against similar attempts by other landlords in the future.

The legal action followed a September 1997 new lease addendumwhich Alliance Housing said was required by HUDthat would have subjected Holiday Venice residents to one-strike evictions if they, or any member of their household, guest or other person under the resident's control, were to "engage in or facilitate criminal activity...within a three block radius of the property." -

While all of the plaintiffs strongly support drug-free housing and a crime-free environment and have personally worked to promote these goals, they refused to sign the lease addendum because it would penalize them for the conduct of other persons over which they have absolutely no control.

The Notice of Change of Lease Terms stated, in part:

"Resident, any member of the Resident's household, or guest or other person under the Resident's control shall NOT engage in or facilitate criminal activity, including drug-related criminal activity, ON or NEAR the property premises, "NEAR" meaning within a three block radius of the property, but not limited to violent criminal, gang, prostitution or gambling criminal activity. "DRUG-RELATED CRIMINAL ACTIVITY" means the illegal manufacturer [sic], sale, distribution, use or possession with intent to manufacture, sell, distribute, or use a controlled substance....VIOLATION OF THE ABOVE PROVISIONS SHALL BE MATERIAL VIOLATION OF THE LEASE AND GOOD CAUSE FOR TERMINATION OF TENANCY."

On September 25, plaintiffs received a memo from Alliance threatening eviction because they had not signed the new rental lease agreement. Plaintiffs responded through attorneys in writing that they objected to the new agreement because it violated their basic civil liberties, but received no response. On November 3, Alliance Housing sent plaintiffs another memo threatening eviction as of December 1, for failure to sign the new mandatory rental agreement. The ACLU filed a federal lawsuit on November 21. The finalized settlement announced today removes the threat of eviction for any resident who does not sign the new lease agreement.

On February 3, the District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed existing litigation challenging the constitutionality of Proposition 209 prior to its actual enforcement. Plaintiffs had previously requested that the Court dismiss this litigation in light of the Ninth Circuit ruling on April 8, 1997 upholding the measure against a facial, pre-enforcement constitutional challenge.

Mark Rosenbaum, Legal Director of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California and one of the attorneys for plaintiffs, stated that the Order "clears the way for future legal challenges to actual implementation of Proposition 209."

Rosenbaum stated "Proposition 209 has not seen the last of California's courtrooms. The Court's Order only concludes chapter one of a much longer work yet to be completed."

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California today filed a federal lawsuit Jose Sanchez vs Frank J. De Santis, Jr. [98-0768 DT (CWx)] on behalf of tenants of a HUD-subsidized housing unit in the Pico Union area challenging the actions of a landlord who had two tenant organizers arrested who were invited by residents to a meeting held at the apartment complex.

Los Angeles Gardens Apartments residents charge in the lawsuit that their free speech, associational and privacy rights, as guaranteed under both federal and state constitutions and federal housing statutes, were violated and that the landlord unlawfully retaliated in violation of state law.

Defendant Frank De Santis is president of Community Partnership Development Corporation and its subsidiary Los Angeles Gardens Community Association, a non-profit entity that owns subsidized housing complexes in the Los Angeles area.

In late November, plaintiffs invited organizers from the Coalition for Economic Survival to a tenant's apartment to assist in conducting a meeting to discuss tenant concerns. During that meeting, De Santis called the LAPD's Rampart Division claiming that the organizers were trespassing. The two CES tenant organizers were arrested although the residents had invited them to conduct tenant outreach, training and organizing activities, all actions approved and funded by HUD. On several other occasions, agents of the owner have threatened to call the police to have organizers arrested for trespassing, although they had always been invited by residents.

The ACLU is charging that a pattern of retaliation from De Santis followed efforts by tenants to play an active role in the development's management and to improve conditions at the facility. The lawsuit claims that because the tenant plaintiffs formed a tenants' association and recommended a community based nonprofit group which sought to purchase the property under the federal Low Income Housing Preservation and Resident Home Ownership Act of 1990, De Santis, is striking back. Although the tenant association failed to obtain the property, it continues to monitor conditions and governance including the enforcement of HUD regulations.

The ACLU charges in the lawsuit that defendant De Santis has refused to accept the tenant association, even after a 1996 City of Los Angeles Housing Department-monitored election confirmed the group, and that he later undermined its efforts by rigging a 1997 tenant association election in which only 11 out of a possible 101 ballots were cast, in part because tenants were not told of the balloting.

ACLU attorneys charge in the lawsuit that the climate of fear created by the landlord's intimidation and harassment became so extreme that they could not even deliver documents to one of their clients who was too ill to leave her apartment. The ACLU says the landlord's actions violate basic civil liberties and federal housing regulations.

In a related action, the ACLU of Southern California is representing one of the arrested tenant organizers and two non-profit tenant-rights' organizations, the Coalition for Economic Survival and the Los Angeles Center for Affordable Housing, in a state lawsuit filed by DeSantis. The ACLU claims that the landlord's lawsuit is nothing but a "Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP)" suit, a frivolous lawsuit filed to punish civil rights activists.