Bay Area suburb accused of harassing black renters

Civil rights groups alleged in a federal lawsuit Wednesday that Antioch police have created a special unit to harass the rising number of black renters there who receive federal housing assistance.The lawsuit originally was filed in San Francisco federal court in May by five renters, and was expanded Wednesday to seek class-action status for all past and present black recipients of federal vouchers in the East Bay suburb. City officials are accused of creating a special police unit called the Community Action Team to run the new renters out of town by pressuring landlords and housing authority officials to evict black tenants receiving vouchers. The lawsuit also accused Antioch police of illegally searching tenants' homes without search warrants.Antioch officials released an unsigned statement Wednesday denying the allegations and defending the special police unit, which it said was created in July 2006 "in response to neighborhood demands for help in dealing with growing crime rates and persistent neighborhood problems."The city called the program "extremely successful" and said it was disappointed that the civil rights groups chose to file a lawsuit rather than negotiate with Antioch officials."We believe that any objective review of our city's policing efforts will reveal that these efforts are focused exclusively on criminal and/or dangerous behavior," the statement said. "Claims of other, sinister motivations are untrue and irresponsible."Two black women who rented homes in Antioch said at a press conference that police used domestic violence complaints they filed in attempts to get the women evicted."Instead of my children feeling protected by the police, they feel afraid," said Karen Coleman, one of the original renters who sued the city she has lived in for five years. Antioch, which is about 37 miles east of San Francisco, has been among the Bay Area communities hardest hit by the housing crisis, with home prices plummeting and foreclosures soaring. Civil rights lawyers representing the tenants alleged in the lawsuit that more homeowners and speculators in Antioch are choosing to rent their houses to recipients of federal housing vouchers to help cover their mortgage payments. SOURCE:SFGATE.COM