LOS ANGELES — The ACLU Foundation of Southern California and the Law Office of Peter Bibring filed a lawsuit Monday against the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) for withholding public records concerning waiting lists for housing vouchers distributed by the agency, according to an article from ACLU Southern California.
The lawsuit alleges that HACLA failed to produce legally required records related to its housing voucher waiting lists, despite formal requests submitted under the California Public Records Act.
According to the ACLU, in 2023 it submitted CPRA requests concerning Section 8 voucher waiting lists to numerous public housing authorities across California. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Section 8 voucher program helps low-income families, elderly people and people with disabilities afford housing in the private market.
Unlike HACLA, the majority of other housing authorities statewide have produced the legally required records. Kath Rogers, a senior staff attorney at ACLU SoCal, said, “Housing Choice Vouchers are a life-changing and highly effective way to decrease housing instability, extreme poverty, and racial inequality.”
Rogers said, “The public deserves to know how this program operates — especially individuals or families who wait for years on a list for a voucher, only to find they have been dropped without their knowledge or consent.”
The ACLU noted that the city of Los Angeles is home to 38% of all unhoused Californians, meaning HACLA manages the most Housing Choice Vouchers of any authority in the state.
The ACLU submitted the requests as part of a larger inquiry into how the Housing Choice Voucher program is implemented across different jurisdictions in California. According to the ACLU, only two in four households eligible for the program receive vouchers, and waitlists can last more than 10 years.
Lead counsel Peter Bibring said, “The Public Records Act exists to let organizations like ACLU SoCal dig into how government actually operates and shine a light on any problems.” He added, “HACLA has neither provided any records on waiting lists nor any justification for their stonewalling.”
The lawsuit asks the court to declare HACLA in violation of the CPRA, order the agency to perform its duties under the law, and produce all nonexempt public records responsive to the ACLU’s request that are in its possession.
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