A Minnesota city will rewrite an anti-crime law seen as harming mentally ill residents

A Minnesota city has agreed not to disclose private medical information about renters with mental health issues and to pay $175,000 to resolve a complaint from the federal government that the city discriminated against mentally ill residents in enforcing an anti-crime law.

The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday announced its agreement with the city of Anoka, a medium-sized suburb of Minneapolis. It addresses allegations that the city violated the federal Americans with Disabilities Act by improperly pressuring landlords to evict tenants with mental health issues over multiple police or emergency calls to their addresses. The DOJ also filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the city, but that case won't go forward if a judge approves the agreement.

The department told the city in a letter in November that an investigation showed illegal discrimination in enforcing a “crime-free” housing ordinance allowing the city to fine or deny rental licenses to landlords whose properties are deemed a nuisance or a source of criminal activity. In at least 780 cases from 2018 through mid-2023, the city issued weekly reports to landlords sharing details about people's mental health crises and even how some tried to kill themselves, the DOJ said.

DOJ officials described the November letter as a first-of-its-kind finding of discrimination against people with mental health disabilities from one of the hundreds of anti-crime ordinances enacted by cities across the U.S. since the early 1990s. Housing and civil liberties advocates have long argued that those policies are enforced more harshly in poor neighborhoods and against people of color.