REMBAUM'S ASSOCIATION ROUNDUP | The Community Association Legal News You Can Use

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Sober Homes – Are They Coming to Your Community? What you need to know

Most commonly, when a community association is faced with a Fair Housing Act complaint, it is with regard to “reasonable accommodation” issues such as a request for an emotional support animal. Less common are Fair Housing Act complaints based on failure to grant a “reasonable modification” such as the need for the construction of a ramp so a wheelchair bound person may have access to the clubhouse. While failure to grant both reasonable accommodation and modification requests continue to dominate the Fair Housing Act landscape, the presence of “sober homes” throughout South Florida, particularly in Palm Beach County, is becoming a great public concern as well.

In most instances, sober homes are afforded protection under the Fair Housing Act. They are known by other names, too, such as halfway houses, group homes, recovery residences, etc. Sober homes are homes located in single-family communities which house multiple recovering drug and alcohol addicts in, what is hopefully, their final steps to sober living. While a well-run sober home can go unnoticed, a poorly supervised sober home can cause severe disruption in an otherwise tranquil community association causing the board to deal with such issues as littering, noise, parking problems, break-ins, thefts, and even drug and suicide related deaths.

Although zoning ordinances and a community’s covenants may require that a community contain single-family residences only, these requirements are trumped by the federally legislated Fair Housing Act, which makes it unlawful for a housing provider, including community associations, to discriminate in the sale or rental of dwellings based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, or disability. Because drug and alcohol addiction is classified as a disability, community associations may find themselves forced to make reasonable accommodations to their covenants to allow sober homes to exist within their communities.

The existence of sober homes in single-family communities, and the fear that sober homes may appear, has caused many residents to speak up and reach out to local government officials who are similarly restrained by federal laws. Although local government officials are restrained by the Fair Housing Act in this regard, hopefully the collective voices of Palm Beach County residents and government officials have been heard by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the federal agency charged with the administration of the Fair Housing Act.

As published in the Palm Beach Post on Monday, May 2, 2016, by Staff Writer, Joe Capozzi, HUD’s Assistant Secretary, Gustavo Velasquez, recently toured some of the sober houses in Delray Beach and met with about 30 local government officials regarding the prevalence of sober homes. HUD plans to issue a Joint Statement together with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) as early as August of this year to provide guidelines for towns and cities desiring to enact ordinances intended to regulate the presence of sober homes in their communities.

As reported in Mr. Capozzi’s Palm Beach Post article, Congresswoman Lois Frankel, who organized the meeting with HUD, said “We are hoping to get from them some further guidance that will allow the cities [and] local governments to craft ordinances or laws that can balance the legal protections for people with disabilities and the ability for people to live in safe healthy neighborhoods.”

While the meeting between local government officials and HUD was not open to the public, some insight was given as to what may be set out in the forthcoming Joint Statement. As reported, the guidance provided by HUD and the DOJ may provide a distinction between occupants of a sober home and the companies that operate them and may provide clarification as to what is considered to be a “fundamental change in the character of a neighborhood.” As always with Fair Housing Act issues, the determination of what is an appropriate action with regard to a sober home will likely be determined on a case-by-case basis. If your community is faced with dealing with a sober home, before taking any action, the board should discuss the situation with the association’s lawyer.