Squeezing the Crowded Out : Courts strike down Santa Ana’s go-it-alone occupancy policy

California courts have now spoken decisively on a controversial aspect of residential overcrowding. They have ruled against locally drawn occupancy limits that are at odds with state guidelines. Whatever local motivations, the courts say, such limits can create additional problems and detract from the urgent need for affordable housing.

For some time now cities around the state had looked on sympathetically while Santa Ana sought to come to grips with its problem of residential overcrowding. In Santa Ana as in many places in the state, the final stop for immigrants seeking a better life often has been a small apartment in the barrios.

As the jurisdiction of last resort, Santa Ana, in effect, instituted its own housing policy. It defied state regulations and enacted a home-grown occupancy requirement for residences. Under state guidelines, 10 people are permitted to live in an average-size, one-bedroom apartment. But Santa Ana allowed only five.

This numbers game pitted state housing officials and community activists against the city, which critics said harbored anti-immigrant sentiment. But it was Santa Ana’s own resident 4th District Court of Appeal that articulated the folly of allowing one city to go its own way on occupancy limits. It warned of homelessness, inconsistencies in adjacent cities’ policies and outright discrimination. The court complained that such a city law “would criminalize a level of occupant density which the state has determined is safe.”

The state Supreme Court in effect has made the decision case law by refusing to review a petition from the city to overturn the ruling. The city says the legal proceedings will end there. At least one city, Dana Point, is considering dropping its defense of a similar, restrictive ordinance.

None of this resolves the dilemma nor eases the sense many have that immigration is overwhelming some localities. But immigration policy--and issues involving jobs, the economy and trade--are best resolved with coherent, equitable approaches. For cities like Santa Ana, the priority task is to help make available more affordable housing.