Kilpatrick v. City of Newark
Equal Justice Under Law filed a lawsuit to fight the discriminatory practice in Newark whereby individuals were banished from the city if they lived in homes worth less than an arbitrary threshold.
In 2015, the Newark City Council passed an Exclusion Ordinance forbidding any mobile home worth less than $25,000 (single-wide) or $35,000 (double-wide) from existing within the city limits. Failure to do so was punishable with fines up to $500 a day.
Newark’s poverty exclusion scheme heightened a serious problem across the state of Arkansas: a lack of access to affordable housing. For every 100 working family households living on extremely low income, the state had only 50 affordable homes available. Many Newark and nearby residents, including our plaintiffs, were personally affected by this - they either could not find affordable housing or were prevented from offering it.
Those affected included Veneda and Robert Marshall, a retired married couple. In order to supplement their social security income, they purchased used mobile homes, which they fixed up and rented out throughout Newark. With a vacant lot available on Thomas Creek Drive, the couple decided to place a double-wide mobile home there but were prevented from doing so because it did not appraise at $35,000 despite dozens of interested responses from the online rental listing.
The Marshall’s were committed to providing affordable and safe housing to local residents. None of their four properties had ever been cited for a health or safety violation. This arbitrary ordinance was preventing a retired couple on a limited income to utilize the property and resources they had available to them, while further exacerbating the need for affordable housing citywide.
Executive Director of Equal Justice Under Law Phil Telfeyan said, “No city should ban residents simply for being too poor to live in an expensive home. Newark's exclusionary and discriminatory practice contradicts our values as a society and the basic principles of fairness embodied in our Constitution.”
Equal Justice Under Law sought a declaration from the federal court that the Exclusion Ordinance unconstitutionally discriminated and penalized individuals based off their wealth status and an injunction prohibiting the City from banishing residents simply because they are poor.
Thanks to our lawsuit, the ordinance was repealed and this discriminatory home banishment is no longer allowed in Newark.
case details
Opposition to Motion for Partial Summary Judgement
Status: Statute repealed
Date Filed: 07/17/2018
Plaintiffs: Beverly Kilpatrick, Venda Marshall, Robert Marshall, Becky Altom, Jonathan Jarvis, on behalf of themselves and others similarly situated
Defendants: The City of Newark and Jim Cunningham in his official capacity as Mayor, Joanne Langston, in her official capacity as recorder.
Jurisdiction: The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas Eastern Division
Partners:
IMPACT
The statute was repealed, and now the cost of one’s home cannot prevent them from residing inside Newark city limits.
