Law Limiting Residents in Sober Group Homes Was Discriminatory

A network of group homes for recovering addicts sued Suffolk County. The network claimed that a 2003 Suffolk County law limiting the number of people who could live in a group home for recovering addicts improperly discriminated against those seeking treatment. The court agreed, and barred the county from enforcing the law. The county admitted that the local legislature didn’t rely on any official study documenting behavioral problems associated with substance abuse housing. The law required those seeking to establish sober homes to notify authorities of the home’s address, keep a certified substance abuse site manager on the premises at all times, pay an initial registration fee of $1,000, an annual renewal fee of $350, and agree to periodic unannounced inspections of the home and its records. Since the law on its face discriminated against a group of disabled individuals and subjected them to burdens on housing that didn’t apply to others, it violated the federal Fair Housing Act.

Human Resource Management Group v. Suffolk County: NYLJ, 2/24/10, p. 42, col. 1 (EDNY; Bianco, J)