Legislation to remove racially restrictive language from property covenants and deeds was signed into law Wednesday by Gov. Brad Little.
Senate Bill 1240, sponsored by Sen. Melissa Wintrow (D-Boise), unanimously passed both the House and Senate. It allows homeowners and/or tenants to go to their county clerk’s office and update their housing covenant free of charge in compliance with the federal Fair Housing Act of 1968, which outlawed the use of racially restrictive language in these kinds of documents. The law goes into effect on July 1.
McKay Cunningham, the director of on-campus experiential learning at the College of Idaho, worked with Wintrow on the bill, and told the Senate Judiciary and Rules committee this practice, along with redlining, was a common tool in the 20th century to create housing disparities based on race and prohibit people of color from buying homes. While it is illegal to embed racial covenants in property deeds nowadays, that language can still be found.
Wintrow worked with a number of stakeholders, such as District 19 constituents Ed and Cynthia Labenski, who found racially restrictive language in the deed to their own home built in the 1970s. Others included the Idaho Realtors, NAACP of the Treasure Valley, Idaho Land Title Association, Boise Regional Realtors, Idaho Fair Housing Council, and the Association of Idaho Cities.
“This really is a historic day for our state,” Wintrow said during the bill’s public signing ceremony Wednesday. “We can’t move forward as a state or nation until we come to terms with our past and commit ourselves to ensuring it doesn’t repeat itself in the future. With this legislation, we acknowledge that this housing practice has been responsible for a lot of wealth disparities between people who are white and people of color and make sure it never will again.”