Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Screeing Backgrounds of New People

[Rob Sandelin (floriferous]

What is being referred to in M. Donvans post is in legal terms called
protected classes. There are two levels of protected class. One is federal,
the other is state. The state can not unprotect a federal protected class
but the state can ADD additional protected classes. Each state varies. I was
told that CA, OR and MN lead the nation in the number of protected classes.
Protected class can also be applied differently between housing and other
situations. According to my neighbor who is a lawyer, WA state law protects
Convicted felons from housing discrimination if they have been paroled. Many
people do not like this, but the law has not been changed, although there is
a case right now, in the town nearest to where I live which is getting a lot
of attention and may in fact cause the rewrite of this. Convicted child
molesters in my state have a whole bunch of their own special laws which
give all kinds of weird conditions based on various court designations, some
of which control where they can and can't live.

Frankly, if you are in the mettle to discriminate against somebody, better
check with a good lawyer first, just so you know. One group that is forming
here had a longish go around with an agency for developmentally disabled
adults who wanted to buy one of their units and sublet it to their clients.
I beleive, if I remember right, they were considered a state protected class
for housing, but I was only peripherally involved in that one so I might
have it backwards.

I once talked a lesbian couple out of suing another local group who they
felt had discriminated against them because the group had "reserved" the
last few units for parents with children. They had actually retained an
attorney and were planning to file suit on the following Monday.

My dads advice to me once was, if your going break the law, know the
details. It will make you cautious enough that you probably won't get
caught.

Rob Sandelin
Northwest Intentional Communties Association
Building a better society, one neighborhood at a time

> -----Original Message-----
> From: cohousing-l [at] freedom2.mtn.org
> [mailto:cohousing-l [at] freedom2.mtn.org]On Behalf Of M Donovan
> Sent: Friday, November 19, 1999 8:10 PM
> To: Multiple recipients of list
> Subject: RE: Screeing Backgrounds of New People
>
>
> Actually Rob, I believe you CAN legally stop a felon, child abuser,
> republican conservative, or a Hajjied (?) from buying a condo unit for
> sale. You can also stop a school teacher, a vegetarian, a Libertarian, a
> Unitarian. Descrimination is illegal on very narrow grounds: race, creed,
> color, national origin, and in some locations marital status,
> child status,
> and sexual orientation. Not that I recommend it. One legal case involved a
> lawyer that was refused a unit at an apartment complex. Filed
> suit based on
> discrimination. Which the court acknowledged. However, it was not ILLEGAL
> discrimination. Big difference. Lost suit.
>
> Now a group may well wonder whether they want to spend their HOA fees on
> lawyers (whether you allow them to buy a unit or not ;-). Anyone can sue,
> and many are overly inclined to. And I agree with those that pointed out
> that screening people gives a false sense of security. Its easier to watch
> someone next door than the felon, child abuser, republican down
> the street.
>
> Michael Donovan
> Village in the City
> St. Louis MO
>
> >I do not beleive you can legally  stop a felon, a child abuser,
> a republican
> >conservative, or a Hajjied from buying any condo unit for sale.
> Should you
> >attempt to do so, you can end up on the bad end of a
> discrimation lawsuit.
> >Of course you can snoop on people if you want. The web makes this pretty
> >easy I understand. For a small fee you can check for crimminal records in
> >all 50 states, although the records only go back 3 years in most states.
> >
> >
> >Rob Sandelin
> >Northwest Intentional Communties Association
> >Building a better society, one neighborhood at a time
>
>