After the Santa Maria City Council’s final vote to repeal its housing ordinance passed on July 27, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced July 30 that it reached a voluntary compliance agreement with the city, resolving allegations that the housing ordinance violated the Fair Housing Act.
According to HUD, it first opened a compliance review regarding the ordinance in April 2020 and then filed a secretary-initiated complaint in August 2020, alleging that the ordinance discriminates against H-2A workers, foreign agricultural employees who work in the U.S. on temporary visas and are relied upon by many local farmers.
City Public Information Manager Mark van de Kamp said in an email that the city “is unaware of how HUD became aware of the ordinance potentially being in violation.”
In May 2021, HUD issued a consent proposal which determined that the city must repeal the ordinance. In response, the ordinance came before the council at its June 1 meeting. Though city staff recommended that the council vote to repeal the ordinance, the council voted not to on June 1, despite HUD threatening a $400,000 fine for not repealing it.
So, the city brought the ordinance back on June 15, again recommending that the council vote to repeal it. City staff also recommended that the council approve a voluntary compliance agreement with HUD to avoid getting fined and resolve the allegations.
This time, the council voted 3-2 to support staff recommendations, with Mayor Alice Patino and Councilmember Etta Waterfield casting the dissenting votes. Though Councilmember Michael Cordero voted in favor of the resolutions, he said at the time that he only did so because he felt his hands were tied.
At the second reading of the ordinance repeal on July 27, the council voted 3-2 to repeal the ordinance, the final nail in the coffin for the contested city legislation. Once again, Waterfield and Patino voted no.
“We responded to a local issue by addressing the community’s concerns about their neighborhoods, spent many months working with various stakeholders to get feedback, and reached a consensus and adopted a balanced ordinance to serve the community,” Patino told the Sun in an emailed statement. “Then we were informed by the federal government that we had to repeal the ordinance. I’m a firm believer in private property rights and listening to neighborhood concerns in making regulatory decisions.”
HUD announced July 30 that it reached a voluntary compliance agreement with Santa Maria, thus “resolving allegations that the city’s enactment and enforcement of restrictions on housing for certain farmworker visa-holders in residential areas of the city violated the Fair Housing Act,” a HUD statement said.
Under the agreement, “the city agreed to immediately halt enforcement of the ordinance that created the restrictions, repeal the ordinance within 90 days, and refrain from enacting any similar restrictions,” the statement said. “The city also agreed to review fines imposed under the ordinance for potential refunds and hire an Employee Housing Resource Officer to receive and address complaints regarding discrimination and the quality and safety of occupied employee housing units going forward.”
The city also agreed to analyze and identify other zoning laws that may be discriminatory.
“Excluding residents from neighborhoods because of their race, color, or national origin violates fair housing laws,” HUD’s Acting Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity Jeanine Worden said in the statement. “There is a long history of segregation and exclusion of agricultural workers in this country, and it is time it stopped. The Fair Housing Act is clear—jurisdictions may not zone people out of neighborhoods or towns based on their race, color, or national origin.”
This article appears in Aug 5-12, 2021.
