Also known as: group home · group-home
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A residential facility housing multiple unrelated persons with intellectual disabilities. Such facilities trigger equal protection analysis when local governments deny permits based solely on community prejudice toward the residents.
Greenleaf Farms applied for a special use permit to convert a house into a residence for ten adults with intellectual disabilities. The board denied the permit after neighbors submitted letters calling the prospective residents dangerous and undesirable. The denial rested solely on those letters rather than any neutral land-use factor such as parking or traffic.
Oxford House leased a single-family house for twelve recovering substance abusers and asked the city to treat the house as a permitted single-family use. The city refused and directed the home to multifamily zones instead. The residents needed the larger household size for financial and therapeutic reasons.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Iola Moore lived in a house in a single-family zone with her son and two grandsons. The ordinance limited occupancy to certain nuclear-family configurations. The city enforced the limit and sought to remove the additional family members.
Rational basis review applies because classifications involving persons with intellectual disabilities are not suspect or quasi-suspect. Even under this deferential standard the government may not act on mere prejudice or community animus.
Supporting sources
Yes. The Act prohibits discrimination against handicapped persons and requires reasonable accommodations in zoning rules when necessary to afford equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling.
A denial violates equal protection when the sole reason is prejudice against the residents' mental condition and no legitimate land-use interest such as traffic or density is rationally served.
Supporting sources
…of Appeals of New York refused to apply an ordinance limiting occupancy of single-family dwellings to related individuals to a "group home" licensed by the State to care for abandoned and neglected children. The court wrote: "Zoning is intended to control types of housing and living and not the genetic or intimate internal…