Couple shocked their $1.8M home has clause stating it can’t be sold to black or Chinese people

An Oregon couple was shocked to discover that their $1.8 million home has a racist 100-year clause in its property documents that states it cannot be sold to Black, Japanese or Chinese people.

Gerrit Koepping and his wife Elisabeth Zeller were shocked when they went to sign their Lake Oswego home contract in 2018 and fought to change the offensive contract.

The couple, who are white, objected to an archaic clause, known as a covenant, which said the property may not be “used or occupied” by anyone who is black or of Chinese or Japanese descent, “except that persons of these breeds may serve as servants of the residents may be employed.’

But the property company and the county clerk informed them that the document was part of the permanent records of the house that was built in 1969.

“As hateful and hurtful as the language is, it is a legal document that I had to sign to buy my house,” Koepping said. the oregonian. “I’m not just adding my name to a statement of horrible racism, I’m also adding generations of people.”

Gerrit Koepping and his wife Elisabeth Zeller (left and right) were shocked when they went to sign their home contract in Lake Oswego in 2018 and fought to change the offensive contract.

Koeppings’ $1.8 million home on Lake Oswego in Portland, Oregon

The high school teacher tried for three years to get the clause removed by contacting the local county board of commissioners, judges and other local government officials.

In August 2022, he turned to Daniel Nguyen, the first person of color elected to the Lake Oswego City Council and now a Democratic State Representative.

Nguyen, whose parents fled Vietnam after the fall of Saigon, introduced a new bill that would allow homeowners to apply for new documents without illegal deals.

“I am proud to support this law as a legal step to empower Oregonians to determine their own role in Oregon’s history and their role in the community in which they live,” Nguyen told The Oregonian.

He credited Koepping for his determination, saying that he “has been working on this bill for longer than he knew it was a problem.”

The new invoice is not mandatory and must be initiated by the owner.

Old documents will be kept in a separate file. Koepping, a student of history, says it’s important to “keep records of the past.”

He was due to head to the Oregon State Capitol in Salem on Thursday to testify in favor of House Bill 3294.

The couple objected to an archaic clause, known as a covenant, which said the property may not be “used or occupied” by anyone who is black or of Chinese or Japanese descent, “except that persons of these races may serve as servants.” of the residents. Being Employed’. Above is an example of a similar document, with a stamp over the offending text.

“The work of working to eliminate language shows that as a society we are actively doing something and not just letting the past rule us,” Koepping said. “It’s something we can do to make things a little better.”

‘Restrictive covenants’, as they are called, became popular in the US after the US Supreme Court outlawed racial zoning in 1917.

In 1948, the Supreme Court ruled that states could not enforce racist restrictions.

However, their impact lasted until 1968 when Congress outlawed them altogether and passed the Fair Housing Act.

Although the Koeppings Lakeside House was built in 1969, it sits on land founded in 1923 by the Oregon Iron & Steel Company, which drafted the neighborhood agreement.