Thread: Escondido City Councilwoman wants ban on renting to illegals

http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?S=5129274&nav=9qrx

Escondido City Councilwoman wants ban on renting to illegals



ESCONDIDO, Calif. Landlords who rent to illegal immigrants would face fines or arrest under a proposed law by an Escondido City Councilwoman.

Marie Waldron said last week that she wants the city to consider creating an ordinance carrying a thousand-dollar fine and arrest in extreme cases for renting or leasing property to undocumented immigrants.

But the head of the San Diego County Apartment Association says the law would place landlords in the position of determining whether an applicant is in the U-S legally and that would violate state and federal laws on fair housing.

Escondido's city manager says even if an ordinance is approved, the city isn't set up to enforce it on all of the town's 20-thousand-500 rental units.

Escondido's city manager says even if an ordinance is approved, the city isn't set up to enforce it on all of the town's 20-thousand-500 rental units.

Seems there should be some hiring then.

But the head of the San Diego County Apartment Association says the law would place landlords in the position of determining whether an applicant is in the U-S legally and that would violate state and federal laws on fair housing.

Just how HARD is it to prove that you are here legally???? They always make it sound like it's solving some sorta "mystery." Geez! You are violating Federal Law by renting to them. They are all idiots!
[/quote]

Escondido City Hall could set up an office which would run a SAVE check on tenants then issue an ID to take to the landlords. If any prospective tenants found out that a landlor had rented to someone without a City Housing ID they could collect on the fine.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/07 ... 7_8_06.txt

Escondido councilwoman proposes banning rentals to illegal immigrants

By: DAVID FRIED - Staff Writer

ESCONDIDO ---- Taking her cue from similar efforts in other cities around the nation, Councilwoman Marie Waldron is proposing that Escondido adopt a city ordinance that would prohibit landlords from renting to illegal immigrants.

Waldron said last week that she wants the city to look into drafting a law that would fine landlords $1,000 for renting or leasing property to undocumented immigrants, and possibly include arrest for extreme violators.

"I don't want it (the ordinance) to be a slap on the wrist," Waldron said.


Waldron, who has regularly pushed for cracking down on illegal immigration, said that prohibiting undocumented immigrants from renting in the city was a response to federal border control efforts, which she believes have failed.

"It's something every city needs to consider," Waldron said of her proposal, which would follow a Pennsylvania city's tentative approval of a similar measure. "It's just a matter of having the political will."

A rental ordinance would place Escondido square in the middle of an ongoing national debate over illegal immigration, and potentially put the city and landlords in a costly position.

City Manager Clay Phillips said he is not sure the city can legally restrict rental agreements. But even if it can, any resulting ordinance would require additional spending and employee time to enforce it for each of the 20,500 rental units in the city.

"Certainly, we're not geared up for that," Phillips said. "We don't have the resources to try to monitor every single rental agreement in the city at this point."

Landlord and fair-housing advocates, meanwhile, said such an ordinance would unfairly burden property owners, and would never pass legal muster.

State and federal fair housing laws prohibit landlords from refusing to rent to anyone based on several categories, including race, religion and national origin.

Requiring a landlord to verify an applicant's legal status would be in violation of those laws, said Robert Pinnegar, executive director of the San Diego County Apartment Association, a trade group representing 2,800 property owners and managers throughout the county.

"If you have a local ordinance that flies in the face of state and federal fair housing laws, that's an issue," Pinnegar said. "Anything of this status that ties our hand would really concern us from the standpoint of not being able to do our job, or worse, putting us at risk (of lawsuits)."

Public housing agencies regularly ---- and legally ---- demand proof of citizenship or legal residency from applicants for government-subsidized housing programs, according to officials with the Fair Housing Council of San Diego.

Private landlords, however, would be in violation of the law if they did the same, especially if they required information about residency status only from those applicants they suspected of possibly not being citizens or legal residents, according to David Kline, an attorney with the council.

"If housing providers, based on this ordinance, were to check Social Security numbers or verify the immigration status of applicants from one country and not another, it wouldn't be a very difficult argument to prove that is national origin discrimination," Kline said. "And that is the likely outcome of an ordinance like that."

Some cities, however, are determined to test the waters, and Waldron said she has carefully watched their efforts.

Last month, Hazleton, Pa., passed its own ordinance aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration in the town of 31,000 residents. In addition to fining landlords who rent to undocumented immigrants, the law also would deny business licenses to companies that hire illegal immigrants and establishes English as the city's official language.

Hazleton's council is scheduled to vote on the measure for its second, and final, reading, this week.

Some residents in San Bernardino have proposed a similar voter initiative for their city. But their efforts were put on hold last month, after a Superior Court judge said supporters needed to gather more signatures in order to place the proposed law on the November ballot.

Other cities have passed measures taking on different issues related to illegal immigration.

Just down the road from Escondido, Vista's City Council unanimously passed an ordinance last month requiring employers who hire day laborers to register with the city.

Waldron said she sees the rental ordinance as the first piece of a patchwork of potential local immigration laws, that could include making English the official city language, among other elements.

The councilwoman, who is up for re-election this fall, said she plans to bring the rental ordinance idea to the full council later this summer to gauge her colleagues' support.

Previously, Waldron won votes from two other council members in her efforts to back a proposed ballot initiative that would have created a state border police to supplement federal immigration enforcement. The initiative failed to garner enough signatures to make it onto the June ballot.

Councilman Sam Abed said he would be "very supportive" of a ban on renting to illegal immigrants, so long as it doesn't violate the rights of property owners. Such an ordinance, he said, would allow the city to focus on providing language classes and other services that aid the city's poorest legal residents.

"When we say stop illegal immigration, it has to be part of a system," Abed said. "At the same time, you have to be able to help the existing, legal residents in our city."

Contact staff writer David Fried at (760) 740-5416 or dfried@nctimes.com.

Escondido's city manager says even if an ordinance is approved, the city isn't set up to enforce it on all of the town's 20-thousand-500 rental units.

Wonder how the value and collect tax on all those?