RIVERSIDE– Today, the California Civil Rights Department (CRD) opened an investigation into the City of Riverside after advocates alleged the city unlawfully rejected state funding for a proposed affordable housing project.

The investigation follows a complaint filed by the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, which alleges the city violated anti-discrimination laws when it voted in February to reject a $20.1 million state HomeKey+ grant that would have created permanent affordable housing.

“All of our Riverside neighbors are entitled under the law to fair housing and equal treatment,” said Kath Rogers, senior staff attorney of ACLU SoCal. “The state agency receives thousands of discrimination complaints from the public every year and chooses to investigate some of those complaints, so the fact that this investigation is moving forward reflects the seriousness of these allegations.”

The proposed project would have converted the Quality Inn into 114 units of permanent supportive housing with long-term affordability and services for veterans and individuals with disabilities. The complaint argues that comments made by Riverside City Council members reflect unlawful bias against the prospective residents of the project.

“The council members who voted to reject funding for affordable housing made their decisions after hearing community opposition in the form of animus and stereotypes against unhoused residents and people with disabilities,” said Ugochi Anaebere-Nicholson of The Public Interest Law Project. “This type of discrimination is against the law and sets our community back. In an environment where we have seen attacks on historically excluded communities of all types, we are pleased that the California Civil Rights Department is investigating the city’s actions.”

Riverside, like communities across the state, faces a shortage of affordable housing. Advocates emphasize that access to stable housing is directly tied to health and survival. Last year alone in Riverside County, 140 people died while unhoused.

CRD will now independently investigate the allegations and determine whether further action is warranted.

The complaint to CRD argues that the council’s action disproportionately and negatively impacts individuals with disabilities who would benefit from permanent supportive housing. In accordance with the city’s mandate to integrate low-income residents with disabilities, the proposed project would have been located in a high-resource area near transit, businesses, shops, and residential neighborhoods.

“Affordable housing helps our entire community, and this no vote has negatively impacted all of us,” said Maribel Nunez of the Inland Equity Community Land Trust. “If this project was not good enough for some of our council members, what affordable housing project will be?”

Read the complaint served by the California Civil Rights Department.

Learn more about the filed complaint.

Media contacts:

ACLU SoCal Communications & Media Advocacy, communications@aclusocal.org, 213-977-5252

Ugochi Anaebere-Nicholson, Esq., The Public Interest Law Project (323)-270-3281, uanaebere-nicholson@pilpca.org  

Veronica J. Garcia, Esq., Inland Counties Legal Services, vgarcia@icls.org (951)368-2572

Dan H. Hoxworth, Affordable Housing Organizing Network, dhhoxworth@gmail.com,  (802) 505-8392

Maribel Nunez, Inland Equity Community Land Trust, maribel@inlandequityclt.org (562) 569-4051