In Illinois, “criminal housing laws” can sell some for minor crimes

Catherine Lang was driven out of her apartment outside of Chicago after the police fluctuated her in traffic and accused her of driving drunk. She found a jury guilty, but until then it was too late.

Dalarie Hardimon was driven out after the police had followed a man in their van through a residential area.

And Catherine Garcia was ordered from the town house where she and her sons had lived for 20 years. Your crime? Make too many 911 calls. Most of them came from Ms. Garcia's intellectually disabled son.

The three women lived in Illinois cities, which have passed so-called criminal housing laws, local regulations that enable the police and the landlords to pass tenants who are accused of violating the law.

The laws were encouraged to clear up violent criminals, drug dealers and disruptive tenants who made life unhappy for their neighbors. An investigation by the New York Times and the Illinois answers, however, shows that many cities in Illinois have transformed criminal housing programs into a blunt instrument in order to suppress families for practically presumed violations, no matter how low.