Series Of Recent Suits By S. California Fair Housing Outfit Targets Apartment Complexes That Allegedly Prohibited Kids From Playing Outdoors; One Local Landlord Says Effort Is Nothing More Than A Shakedown To Bleed Cash From Housing Industry, Noting It Filed More Suits In Last Two Years Than It Had In Last Two Decades

In Palm Springs, California, The Desert Sun reports:

• A candy-colored playground, surrounded by freshly-cut grass, sits in the center courtyard of Sunnyview Villas, an apartment cluster in Palm Springs. At first glance, this looks like the perfect spot for a rousing game of hide-and-seek or freeze tag.
  
  But don't start the kids games just yet. If the tenants are to be believed, this is not a place for children.
  
  “They put a note on my door and all the apartments and it said none of the children could go outside and play,” said Patricia Alvarado, a mother of three who was kicked out of Sunnyview in 2014.
  
  “It said if they wanted to play, they could go to the park over by the school,” the Palm Springs resident said, speaking in Spanish. “I felt it was unjust. I thought it was discrimination.”
  
  Alvarado is not alone. And neither is Sunnyview.
  
  The villas are one of four Coachella Valley apartment complexes that have been recently sued on claims they discriminated against children. Three of the four lawsuits are backed by the Riverside County Fair Housing Council,(1) a nonprofit group that says these cases are indicative of a larger problem in the desert.
  
  ***
  Most of the apartment complexes have declined to discuss the lawsuits. One landlord called the cases a "shakedown," designed to bleed money out of the housing industry.
  
  More than 160 discrimination complaints have come from Palm Springs over the past two fiscal years, giving the city the highest per-capita complaint rate in all of Riverside County, according to council data. Fourteen of these complaints dealt with discrimination against children, which is also the highest rate in the county.
  
  ***
  While the city investigates, lawsuits continue.
  
  At Sunnyview, Alvarado and two other mothers claim their children were forbidden from playing outside without supervision, and eventually barred from playing outside altogether. [for the lawsuit, see Alvarado, et al. v. Sunnyview Villa]
  
  At Tahquitz Court Apartments, also in Palm Springs, managers enforced similar supervision rules and set a curfew that applied only to children, a lawsuit says. [for the lawsuit, see Moyotl, et ano. v. Tahquitz Court Apartments, et ano.]
  
  At El Jardin Apartments in Coachella, parents claim that children were not even allowed to play on their own patio – a private space – because they "might leave a mess.” [for the lawsuit, see Casteneda, et al. v. Coachella Housing Investors, LP, et al.]
  
  And finally, Arabia Palms, an apartment complex in Indio, settled a lawsuit earlier this year filed by 26 tenants for $337,500. The suit focused on atrocious living conditions, but also included the claims of five families who said apartment management would not let their children play outdoors.
  
  “The common thread in all of these cases is that children were told they couldn’t play outside without supervision, and that’s a violation of the Fair Housing Act,” [housing attorney Margaret] Elder said. “It’s not up to property managers to make these decisions.
  
  ***
  [Landlord Roger] Evershed [] accused the Fair Housing Council of "shaking down" businesses, noting that the nonprofit has filed more lawsuits in the past two years than in the prior two decades.

For more, see Kids forbidden to go outside, housing lawsuits claim (Four lawsuits have accused local apartment complexes of discriminating against children and families).

--------------------

(1) The Fair Housing Council of Riverside County, Inc. is a non-profit fair housing organization, approved by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), serving residents in Riverside County, California who have been targeted by unlawful housing practices and discrimination.