Critics call Granite City's evictions 'collective punishment.' A judge calls them legal
Granite City Compulsory Evictions - Institute for Justice
Excerpted....
No one should be punished for a crime someone else committed.
That simple notion is at the heart of our criminal justice system—we are all innocent until proven guilty and should be punished only for things the government can prove we did. But try telling that to Granite City, Illinois, where city officials are trying to kick Andy Simpson and Debi Brumit (along with Debi’s grandchildren) out of their home as punishment for a crime everyone agrees they did not commit.
Why? Because Debi’s daughter (who does not live with her) stole a van elsewhere in town. In May of 2019, Debi realized that her youngest daughter had developed a serious substance-abuse problem. Debi took in her daughter’s two young children and told her daughter to leave them alone until she was ready to get clean. Weeks later, Debi’s daughter called her mom to say she wanted to turn her life around, so Debi did what moms do: She drove to where her daughter was staying in Missouri, picked her and her boyfriend up, and brought them to an in-patient treatment facility in Granite City.
But the treatment center didn’t last. Late that night, the daughter and her boyfriend showed up at Debi and Andy’s house, having checked themselves out of the center and now looking for a ride back to Missouri. Debi and Andy refused and told the pair to leave. That was the last they heard from them until Monday, when they first learned that the two had been arrested for stealing a van, apparently in an effort to drive themselves back home. Debi and Andy continued to do the only thing they could: try to provide the best life they could for the grandkids while hoping Debi’s daughter one day could get her life in order.
But that’s not good enough for Granite City. The city wants everyone evicted from the house: Debi, Andy, and the kids.
The problem is that Granite City has what it calls a “crime-free” housing ordinance that amounts to a compulsory eviction law. Under the law, if you rent your home in Granite City and any member of your “household” or even a guest commits a crime—anywhere in the city and, sometimes, anywhere at all—then your landlord is required to evict you. In fact, your landlord can be fined and even lose his rental license if he fails to evict you. That means Debi and Andy are on the hook for the van theft, even though no one believes they had anything to do with it or even knew about it.
Granite City Compulsory Evictions - Institute for Justice
Excerpted....
No one should be punished for a crime someone else committed.
That simple notion is at the heart of our criminal justice system—we are all innocent until proven guilty and should be punished only for things the government can prove we did. But try telling that to Granite City, Illinois, where city officials are trying to kick Andy Simpson and Debi Brumit (along with Debi’s grandchildren) out of their home as punishment for a crime everyone agrees they did not commit.
Why? Because Debi’s daughter (who does not live with her) stole a van elsewhere in town. In May of 2019, Debi realized that her youngest daughter had developed a serious substance-abuse problem. Debi took in her daughter’s two young children and told her daughter to leave them alone until she was ready to get clean. Weeks later, Debi’s daughter called her mom to say she wanted to turn her life around, so Debi did what moms do: She drove to where her daughter was staying in Missouri, picked her and her boyfriend up, and brought them to an in-patient treatment facility in Granite City.
But the treatment center didn’t last. Late that night, the daughter and her boyfriend showed up at Debi and Andy’s house, having checked themselves out of the center and now looking for a ride back to Missouri. Debi and Andy refused and told the pair to leave. That was the last they heard from them until Monday, when they first learned that the two had been arrested for stealing a van, apparently in an effort to drive themselves back home. Debi and Andy continued to do the only thing they could: try to provide the best life they could for the grandkids while hoping Debi’s daughter one day could get her life in order.
But that’s not good enough for Granite City. The city wants everyone evicted from the house: Debi, Andy, and the kids.
The problem is that Granite City has what it calls a “crime-free” housing ordinance that amounts to a compulsory eviction law. Under the law, if you rent your home in Granite City and any member of your “household” or even a guest commits a crime—anywhere in the city and, sometimes, anywhere at all—then your landlord is required to evict you. In fact, your landlord can be fined and even lose his rental license if he fails to evict you. That means Debi and Andy are on the hook for the van theft, even though no one believes they had anything to do with it or even knew about it.
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