Housing rights advocates filed a civil rights complaint against the City of Riverside for its rejection of a state housing grant. The state funds would have helped build an affordable housing project near UC Riverside.
The claim filed with the state’s Civil Rights Department argues the city council violated anti-discrimination laws when it voted against taking the $20 million grant.
“We all deserve a safe place to call home,” said Maribel Nunez with the Inland Equity Community Land Trust. “By rejecting this funding for new affordable housing, the City Council has voted against our entire community.”
The funding from the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development would have helped convert the Quality Inn hotel on University Avenue into 114 affordable housing units for homeless people and people with disabilities.
But the council voted in January to reject the funding due to criticisms over the “housing first” model and the project’s approval process. Councilman Sean Mill said before their vote that he disagreed with giving housing to people before having them receive rehab or mental health services.
“I’ve always asked that we go toward a transitional-housing model that has an accountability base in there,” said Mill.
Councilman Philip Falcone told the Raincross Gazette in February he wanted more input from local businesses who had concerns. He also shared that he didn’t support a “Housing First Absolute” approach and wanted some compromise.
Mill did not respond to requests for comment. Falcone declined to answer KVCR's questions and referred back to his comments to the Gazette.
Kath Rogers, an attorney with the ACLU of Southern California, said the city council’s decision was influenced by discriminatory comments.
“Rejecting projects based on discrimination, based on animus, based on stereotypes, sets all of us back, sets our communities back. It's really a regressive way of addressing housing and we shouldn't tolerate it in any of our communities.”
Councilwoman Clarissa Cervantes, who represents the area where the project would have been built, told KVCR that she was concerned that an anti-discrimination complaint on the project would come forward due to “things that were said or written” by some of her colleagues.
“I still remain disappointed that the majority of the council decided not to move forward with this project when this item was up for discussion,” said Cervantes. “At the end of the day, housing is a human right and the people who would have been housed by this project are just as worthy of housing as every other person in our community.”
The state’s Civil Rights Department said they’re, “unable to comment on, even to confirm or deny, a potential or ongoing investigation.”
