Catherine Lang was evicted from her apartment outside Chicago after the police saw her swerving in traffic and charged her with driving drunk. A jury found her not guilty, but by then it was too late.

Dalarie Hardimon was evicted after the police chased a man speeding in her van through a residential neighborhood.

And Catherine Garcia was ordered out of the townhouse she and her sons had lived in for 20 years. Their offense? Making too many 911 calls. Most of them came from Ms. Garcia’s intellectually disabled son.

The three women lived in Illinois cities that have adopted what are known as crime-free housing laws, local ordinances that empower the police and landlords to evict tenants who are accused of breaking the law.

The laws were promoted as a way to clear out violent criminals, drug dealers and nuisance tenants who made life miserable for their neighbors. But an investigation by The New York Times and The Illinois Answers Project shows that many cities in Illinois have turned crime-free housing programs into a blunt instrument to oust families for virtually any alleged infraction, no matter how minor.