How the Federal Fair Housing Act Protects Persons with Handicaps in Group Homes

Abstract

Most communities applying land-use regulations do so for proper public purposes, but history has shown that this is not always the case. Zoning has been criticized for decades for being used to exclude needed housing. Every year courts hear claims that zoning discriminates against group homes and other affordable housing options, but generally exclusionary zoning cases have not fared well in the courts.¹However, since the passage of legislation to protect persons with a handicap from discrimination, and the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in City of Edmonds v. Oxford House, 524 U.S. 725 (1995), 47 ZD 212, the law of zoning and group homes has changed dramatically.