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                   "Fair Housing" in Charlotte?
                                                 
WASHINGTON, D.C.--The U.S. Justice Department today challenged a
Charlotte, North Carolina law which attempted to disperse group homes
for disabled persons and which required that they be shielded from
adjacent residential properties by trees and shrubs.

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Charlotte, the government
charged that the city violated the Fair Housing Act by using its zoning
ordinances to discriminate against persons with disabilities such as
autism, AIDS and disabilities associated with aging.

"We must not allow persons with disabilities to become second class
citizens or to be subjected to restrictions that only apply to them,"
said Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Deval L. Patrick.
"When a city discriminates against its citizens because of their
disabilities, it is violating the law."

Today's suit claims that the city's zoning ordinance forbids all
disabled persons living in group homes from locating within one-quarter
mile of each other and requires homes of seven or more people to have
buffers of trees and shrubs separating them from other residential
properties.  Homes for non-disabled persons, including group homes for
unrelated persons are not subject to these restrictions.

The suit also asserts that the city prevented a home for people with
autism from relocating to the lot next door.  The home, run by
Mecklenburg Autistic Group Homes, Inc., is already located within one
quarter mile from another group home, but is currently grandfathered in.
Charlotte has refused to extend this exempt status to the home if it
makes the move.

The suit also alleges that the city blocked a home for people with AIDS,
the Taylor Home of Charlotte, from locating within a single-family
district in Charlotte.  The city insisted the residents are not persons
"who need sheltered living conditions for rehabilitation" as required by
the zoning ordinance's definition of group home because people with AIDS
cannot be rehabilitated. Groups of unrelated non-disabled persons are
not subject to that definition.

The complaint asks the court to prohibit Charlotte from further
discrimination, to award compensatory damages to the victims of the
city's discriminatory policies, and to assess punitive damages and civil
penalties.

[Justice Department Sues Charlotte, NC for Discriminating Against
Disabled Persons Living Together, DOJ, 11/23/94]

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