Hundreds of communities across the U.S. have for several decades tried to reduce crime, fight gangs and tackle noise and other neighborhood problems through the use of “crime-free” or “public nuisance” laws encouraging and allowing landlords to evict renters when police or emergency crews are repeatedly called to the same addresses.

Long the subject of criticism that such policies are ineffective and enforced more harshly in poor neighborhoods and against people of color, the ordinances are now under scrutiny as sources of mental health discrimination.

Last November, the U.S. Department of Justice issued what it called a first-of-its-kind finding, telling a Minneapolis suburb that its enforcement of a crime-free law illegally discriminated against people with mental health disabilities.

Other cities and jurisdictions are joining a growing movement to rethink, rewrite or repeal such laws as criticism and lawsuits escalate.

  • @Nurse_Robot
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    59 months ago

    Tbf if grandma needs the EMS called frequently then she probably shouldn’t still be living at home

    • Flying Squid
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      149 months ago

      What does ‘frequently’ mean here though? The article sure doesn’t say. It sounds to me like ‘frequently’ is whatever the landlord decides. Which could mean 3 times in 2 years. After all, 3 visits from the police in 2 years would sure make the tenant seem sketchy without knowing the details.

      • @meco03211
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        129 months ago

        What does ‘frequently’ mean here though?

        Depends on the color of the tenant.

    • Drusas
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      89 months ago

      Maybe that should be her decision. If someone prefers to die at home alone, that’s their choice.

      • @Nurse_Robot
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        59 months ago

        If done correctly, with hospice, 100% agreed. If she’s going to the hospital via ambulance every month that’s over 100 thousand per year, easy. Could be closer to half a million, not to mention it takes EMS services away from other emergencies.

        This is a dumb hypothetical

        • @Burn_The_Right
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          9 months ago

          So your solution is to make her homeless for calling for medical services?! That’s fucking brutal.

          • @Nurse_Robot
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            49 months ago

            No, it’s to get her into a residence with medically trained staff and supplies. That was quite a leap of logic you made

            • @Burn_The_Right
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              9 months ago

              It’a not a leap of logic at all. In the U.S., assisted living facilities are extremely expensive and are out of the question for a huge portion of Americans. The few “affordable” urine-soaked care facilities in the U.S. are effectively torture camps for anyone who has not lost their mental faculties.

              And that’s all assuming assisted living is even needed for someone who had to call EMS more than usual that year. Any proposed solution that involves eviction is a patently horrific solution.

              It’s amazing to me that this would need to be explained. But, to be fair, if you are talking about this from the perspective of any country other than the U.S., then I could see your point in trying to get the person some elevated level of care. But still, eviction shouldn’t be part of the solution.

    • @[email protected]
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      69 months ago

      It allows the city to suspend a landlord’s rental license if police answer four or more “nuisance” calls in a year. Before that, a landlord can be fined up to $500. This is in the city from this article, but across the us apparently there are lots of different limits and definitions of nuisance. In general I don’t want landlords making health and financial decisions for the elderly.