Tucson neighborhood uses new law to shed racist relics of housing discrimination

A new state law went into effect on Saturday, making it easier for homeowners and neighborhood associations to finally get rid of racist housing restrictions that were outlawed decades ago but never erased from property records.

Tucson's Vista del Monte Neighborhood was one of the first subdivisions in Arizona to put the new law to use.

On Sunday, the neighborhood association invited local media outlets to watch as homeowners signed amendments to their covenants, conditions and restrictions — or CC&Rs for short — to drop the illegal language once and for all.

The next day, Laurel Shane, association president for the midtown neighborhood, made it official by filing the notarized documents with the Pima County Recorder's Office

"That was definitely on purpose," Shane said of the timing. "We wanted to make a statement that this was important to us, and we wanted to take advantage of the new law as quickly as possible."

The Fair Housing Act of 1968 banned race-based property restrictions, finally ending a practice that was widespread in Tucson and across the nation during the first half of the 20th century.

Well over 200 local neighborhoods once excluded residents based on race, according to an analysis published last year by the Mapping Racist Covenants Project .

Led by population geographer and professor Jason Jurjevich, researchers at the University of Arizona combed through the founding documents for 756 subdivisions built between Arizona statehood in 1912 and 1968 and found discriminatory covenants for more than one-quarter of them.

In all but a few cases, those unenforceable restrictions have remained on the books, largely because of the difficulty and expense involved in amending private agreements among homeowners.

The new state law, known as the Uniform Unlawful Restrictions in Land Records Act , seeks to change all that by giving the governing boards of neighborhood associations full authority to drop such illegal language from their CC&Rs without a vote of their full membership.

The measure was introduced on Jan. 30 by Republican Sen. J.D. Mesnard and co-sponsored by Democratic Sen. Denise "Mitzi" Epstein, both from Phoenix-area districts. State lawmakers passed it without a single no vote, and Gov. Katie Hobbs signed it into law on March 29.

The ugly truth

The Vista del Monte Neighborhood includes several hundred homes nestled between Columbus Boulevard and Swan Road and Fort Lowell and Grant roads.

Discriminatory restrictions appeared in the CC&Rs of three of the eight developments there: The original 1930 Vista del Monte development, where Shane now lives, prohibited homes from being owned or occupied by "any persons of African or Mongolian descent." The Venice Addition, also from 1930, had rules allowing only "persons of the Caucasian race." And the Laurel Addition, developed in 1945, barred anyone of "African or Asiatic descent" or "not of the white or Cuacasion race," with Caucasian misspelled like that.

In at least two of the developments, the discriminatory covenants came with a so-called "perpetuity clause," a common tactic at the time designed to keep such restrictions from ever being lifted.

Shane moved into the neighborhood 5 years ago. She said she doesn't remember seeing the racist language in the pile of documents she had to sign when she bought her home, but it was probably in there.

Now no one will have to see it, unless they specifically go looking for the original documents that will remain on file with the county recorder.

"It's not like we're trying to cover up that it was ever there," Shane said. "It just won't appear in any future paperwork."

Shane said she first learned the details of her neighborhood's "heartbreaking" past last year, when she volunteered to help with the Mapping Racist Covenants Project. The U of A research team tracked down the race-based restrictions for two of the developments in her area but not for the one where she lives. Shane said she found that one herself, after the mapping project was finished, when she stumbled onto it attached to a warranty deed filed with the recorder's office.

That's the ugly truth now being spotlighted by the mapping project and similar research efforts in other cities, Shane said: "Housing segregation wasn't only a thing that happened in the South, and it was going on a lot more recently than you think."

New way forward

Board members in Vista del Monte first started talking about getting rid of the restrictions there in March. They ultimately decided to wait until the new state law took effect, because they wanted to make sure whatever they did would be legally binding. "We didn't want to take any chances," Shane said.

A friend of hers offered to notarize the documents free of charge. The whole process ended up costing the neighborhood association $90 in filing fees.

Shane said board members didn't want anyone to feel unwelcome in the neighborhood or get the impression such appalling old ideas were still shared by the current residents.

They also didn't want to force new homebuyers to sign closing documents containing hateful language they did not agree with, even if it was no longer legally valid. "I don't want anyone to have to perjure themselves just to buy a house," Shane said.

The Vista del Monte Neighborhood surrounds another subdivision that also once sought to exclude anyone "not of the White or Caucasian race."

Last year, months before the new state law had even been introduced, association board members in the San Carlos Place Neighborhood came up with their own process to strike the hateful language from their 78-year-old founding documents.

The method used by that subdivision of 77 homes, west of Swan between Grant Road and Glenn Street, is nearly identical to the amendment process now laid out in statute.

Shane said she's proud that she and her neighbors were among the first to use the new law — and that they managed to attract some attention to the issue while they were at it.

"If other people are wanting to get rid of these covenants, they have a way to do that," she said. "I think we're going to see more and more neighborhoods doing this."

Contact reporter Henry Brean at . On Twitter:

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