A lawsuit challenging Granite City’s compulsory-eviction law alleges a tenant was unconstitutionally evicted from her home because a man who occasionally stayed with her was an accomplice in a theft. She and her schizophrenic son allegedly spent three weeks without a home while her criminal ex-boyfriend spent 30 days in prison for the crime he committed.
Attorney Samuel Gedge of the Institute for Justice in Arlington, Va. filed the suit on behalf of plaintiff Beth McGrath against Granite City on Nov. 4 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois.
“For well over a decade, the City of Granite City, Illinois, maintained and enforced a compulsory-eviction program as senseless as it was cruel,” the complaint states. “Routinely, the City would order private landlords to evict entire families because a tenant or guest committed a crime within city limits."
According to the complaint, more than 550 compulsory-eviction demands were issued between 2010 and late 2019, including McGrath.
Gedge wrote that McGrath lived in her home “barely two months” when she received a compulsory-eviction demand from Granite City’s “Crime Free Housing Unit.”
“Beth had committed no crime,” he wrote. “She had done nothing wrong. But an ex-boyfriend, who sometimes stayed with her, had been arrested for stealing steel appliances elsewhere in town.”
The suit states that McGrath first moved into a rented home located on Cleveland Boulevard in Granite City in January 2018 with her teen nephew and 22-year-old son, Quinton. Quinton has schizophrenia and autism, and McGrath served as her nephew’s foster parent.
The suit states that some neighbors complained about Quinton, who would sit outside their home and talk to himself. McGrath also had difficulty climbing the stairs at the home, so they moved into a new rental home on Delmar Avenue in September 2018. The home was owned and rented out by a private landlord.
McGrath had allegedly been in a long-term relationship with John Garrison prior to moving into the rental property. Even though the two had ended their relationship. Garrison would sometimes stay over at her home, the suit states.
Garrison and Timothy Woodrome helped McGrath move furniture into her home in October 2018 and then asked if they could use the U-Haul to move some of Woodrome’s belongings. McGrath agreed.
“Only after the truck-rental company contacted her later that week did Beth learn that the men had kept the U-Haul for another two to three days,” the suit states.
Then on Oct. 31, 2018, Garrison showed up at her home, saying he needed a place to stay after being kicked out of his home. The next day, Granite City police officers showed up and told McGrath the U-Haul she had rented had been used in a crime. She allegedly explained that Garrison and Woodrome took the U-Haul after she had finished using it. She also told the officers that Garrison was currently in the home. He was taken to the police station for further questioning, the suit states.
Garrison and Woodrome had allegedly driven the U-Haul to a Prairie Farms Dairy facility in Granite City on Oct. 16, 2018, and stole various steel appliances. The two men were charged with felony theft. Garrison served 30 days in prison, the suit states.
Shortly after Garrison’s arrest, McGrath allegedly received a compulsory-eviction demand in the mail by Lieutenant Mike Parkinson, who is also a Madison County board member.
McGrath requested a hearing at city hall, which was set for Dec. 17, 2018.
Gedge wrote that McGrath spoke with Parkinson and “begged him to let her stay in her home.” The plaintiff claims she was told that she “should keep better company.”
At her grievance hearing, McGrath said the crime was “brand new to me.”
Then in February 2019, Granite City found that a violation occurred pursuant to the city ordinance “to regulate business licenses for lessors of residential units, and to call for revocation of lessor’s business licenses, where the lessor permits the leased premises to harbor criminal activity.”
Gedge wrote that the “findings of fact” against McGrath were identical, including typographical errors, to other grievance hearings.
“On information and belief, the City’s hearing officer engaged in this boilerplate practice from as early as 2011 until November 2019,” he wrote.
In order to avoid an eviction proceeding, McGrath allegedly left the home without anywhere else to live.
Gedge wrote that the consequences of McGrath’s eviction were “devastating.”
“The first night after leaving, she and Quinton slept in their car,” he wrote. “For weeks after, they stayed in motel rooms and on friends’ couches. Each day was a struggle to figure out where they would eat and sleep and clean themselves.”
The suit states that McGrath had to sell many of her belongings at a discount, because she was desperate for money.
“In punishing Beth for a crime she did not commit, Granite City stripped her of her home, her belongings, her security, and her dignity,” Gedge wrote.
After three weeks without a home, McGrath and her son moved into a new rental property in Alton.
“In being targeted by Granite City’s compulsory-eviction law, Beth was not punished for anything she did,” Gedge wrote. “She was instead punished purely because Granite City believed that John Garrison spent some amount of time at her home. Holding individuals strictly liable for crimes committed by people they associate with infringes their fundamental rights.”
According to the lawsuit, Granite City enforced a “crime-free housing ordinance” from about 2006 until earlier this year. Under the ordinance, private landlords were allegedly coerced to evict private tenants or face sanctions.
Violations that could lead to governmental sanctions included the failure to take prompt, diligent and lawful steps to remove tenants from the rental unit following notice of a committed felony, notice of four ordinance violations, and following notice of other violations of the crime-free housing lease addendum within the city limits.
The addendum includes criminal offenses committed by tenants, members of their households or guests.
“Neither landlords nor tenants were free to negotiate or opt out of the addendum,” Gedge wrote. “Rather, the City mandated that landlords and tenants sign the document as a condition of receiving their occupancy permits. Even that was an empty act; if no one were to sign it, the addendum still would apply.”
“The end result of Granite City’s compulsory-eviction law was that landlords were required by law to evict entire families whenever the City claimed that any guest of a tenant or member of a tenant’s ‘household’ ‘engaged in criminal activity’ anywhere in Granite City, ‘engaged in any act intended to facilitate criminal activity’ anywhere in Granite City, or committed a ‘forcible felony’ anywhere at all,” he added.
Gedge wrote that the compulsory-eviction law violated McGrath’s fundamental rights under the Due Process Clause and forced her landlord to evict her even though he did not want to.
“Extinguishing Beth’s interest in her home at 1712 Delmar Avenue served no purpose beyond punishing her (and her son) for a crime committed by John Garrison,” the suit states.
“In fact, the effect of extinguishing Beth’s property right in her home at 1712 Delmar Avenue in these circumstances was to punish Beth far more harshly than John Garrison - even though Garrison is the one alleged to have committed the crime in question,” it continues.
McGrath seeks a declaration that the compulsory-eviction law violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause, Equal Protection Clause, and the constitutional right to association. She also seeks unspecified money damages, compensation under the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause, attorney’s fees, court costs and all other just relief.
McGrath is also represented by local attorney Bart Sullivan of FoxSmith LLC in St. Louis.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois case number 3:20-cv-1169