Four Danville residents have filed a federal civil rights complaint against the eastern Illinois city, accusing it of discriminating against black residents through a plan to lower the number of low-income housing units.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) — Four Danville residents have filed a federal civil rights complaint against the eastern Illinois city, accusing it of discriminating against black residents through a plan to lower the number of low-income housing units. The complaint alleges that Mayor Scott Eisenhauer’s plan is aimed at driving out people who aren’t longtime residents and thus targets black residents who moved to the city in recent years. "It’s not hidden. It’s a campaign against, quote unquote, outsiders," said Washington-based attorney Michael Allen, who is working with the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law. He filed the complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on behalf of Crystal Chambers, Temika Williams, Artiris Jones and Malvory Battle. Eisenhauer declined comment Friday, saying in an e-mail that he hadn’t received notice that the complaint. The mayor has talked about reducing low-income housing available in the city since at least 2008. In January of that year, he told The News-Gazette newspaper in Champaign that cutting back on low-income housing was an economic decision. "The problem is the number of individuals in our community who need assistance versus the lack of assistance and resources available due to continued funding cuts," Eisenhauer said. "By reducing the amount of subsidized housing — any subsidized housing — you then reduce the number of individuals requiring assistance. They’ll simply go somewhere else." The complaint, filed on Nov. 24, also alleges the city hasn’t tried to remove any barriers toward its compliance with the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental or financing of homes. Danville hasn’t met federal requirements to even assess what those barriers might be in a city that, the complainant claims, has heavily segregated residential areas. The Department of Housing and Urban Development is looking into the claims but doesn’t comment on ongoing investigations, spokeswoman Shantae Goodloe said. If the agency finds civil rights violations, it can fine the city $16,500 for a first offense and take away federal housing funds until the city complies. Danville received more than $1 million in federal Community Development Block Grant money last year, plus an unknown amount of HUD funding. Some local residents and elected officials have complained for years about what they believe is an influx of people from Chicago in need of public housing. They say the incoming residents either couldn’t find public housing in Chicago or moved to Danville to be close to relatives locked up at the local state prison. The city of 31,000, which sits on the Indiana border, has struggled economically for decades, an early victim of the exodus of factory jobs from the Rust Belt. Vermilion County, where Danville is located, had a 10.9 percent unemployment rate in October, almost 2 percent higher than the state average. The city of 31,000 residents maintains more than 500 apartments and other housing units for low-income people. The complaint alleges that Eisenhauer proposed cutting that number by more than 300 in a city plan this year. Last year, Eisenhauer said during a meeting with HUD officials touring the city that Danville couldn’t afford to provide social services for many of its low-income residents. He said many of those people were drawn to the city by the chance to find a place to live. "We are getting more unemployed because we have affordable housing for them," he said then. The city also has laid off public employees during the recession. Allen, the Washington attorney, said the local economy isn’t an excuse to try to skirt civil rights laws. Even if the recession had put Danville in a tough place, "I don’t know of any provision in civil rights law that allows those laws to be suspended in that time." Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
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