Saturday, August 10, 2013

Fair Housing Feds' Probe Triggered By HUD Complaint Filed By Legal Guardian For Intellectually Disabled Ward Leads To $80K Settlement With St. Peters In Suit Accusing City Of Discriminatory Zoning Practices

From the U.S. Department of Justice (Washington, D.C.):
  • The Justice Department announced [] that the city of St. Peters, Mo. will pay $80,000 and make changes to its zoning laws to settle a lawsuit alleging that the city violated the federal Fair Housing Act (FHA) and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) when it denied a zoning request to operate a group home for four women with intellectual disabilities.

    The lawsuit is part of the Justice Department’s continuing effort to enforce civil rights laws that require states and municipalities to end discrimination against, and unnecessary segregation of, persons with disabilities.(1) The settlement was filed [] and must be approved by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.

    “The Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act ensure that municipalities cannot enforce discriminatory land use policies that restrict the rights of their residents to live in the housing of their choice,” said Jocelyn Samuels, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “This important settlement compensates the individuals who were harmed by the city’s practices and will prevent future housing discrimination against the city’s residents who have disabilities.”

    Zoning ordinances that unjustifiably keep group homes out of neighborhoods violate the Fair Housing Act,” said Bryan Greene, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Acting Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. “HUD and the Department of Justice will continue to work together to ensure that everyone, including persons with disabilities, has access to the kind of housing that meets their needs.”

    The settlement resolves the United States’ claims that the city violated the FHA and ADA when it adopted and enforced a facially discriminatory 2,500 foot group-home spacing requirement and when its Board of Adjustment refused, without justification, a variance petition to allow Community Living Inc. (CLI) to operate a group home for four women with disabilities.

    The complaint also alleges that the city refused to make reasonable accommodations to the city’s rules, policies, practices or services that were necessary to afford the residents an opportunity to use and enjoy their home.
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  • The case began when a legal guardian for a resident of the group home filed a complaint with HUD after the Board of Adjustment denied the group home’s variance petition. HUD referred the complaint to the Justice Department, which conducted an investigation.
For the Justice Department press release, see Justice Department Settles Allegations of Disability Discrimination Against the City of St. Peters, Mo.

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(1) Olmstead v. L.C., 527 U.S. 581 (1999), is a United States Supreme Court case regarding discrimination against people with mental disabilities. The Supreme Court held that under the Americans with Disabilities Act, individuals with mental disabilities have the right to live in the community rather than in institutions if, in the words of the opinion of the Court, "the State's treatment professionals have determined that community placement is appropriate, the transfer from institutional care to a less restrictive setting is not opposed by the affected individual, and the placement can be reasonably accommodated, taking into account the resources available to the State and the needs of others with mental disabilities." (Reference: Wikipedia).