UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
EASTERN DIVISION
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff,
v.
No. 99C 4461
CITY OF CHICAGO HEIGHTS,
Defendant.
__________________________________
COMPLAINT
- This action is brought by the United States to enforce
the provisions of the Fair Housing Act, as amended, 42 U.S.C.
§§ 3601 et seq.
- This court has jurisdiction over this action under
28 U.S.C. § 1345 and 42 U.S.C. § 3614(a).
- Defendant City of Chicago Heights is located in Cook
County, Illinois, and is organized under the laws of the State of
Illinois.
- The City of Chicago Heights exercises zoning and land use
authority over land within its boundaries. The City of Chicago
Heights' Zoning Ordinance contains the City's zoning and land use
regulations.
- Section 7-1.2 of the Chicago Heights Zoning Code permits,
in single-family residential districts, group homes in which not
more than eight persons who are disabled may live together with
paid professional staff, provided the group home obtains a
Certificate of Occupancy. A new zoning ordinance was passed by the
City Council on December 21, 1998, but the above-cited ordinance
was in effect at the time of the events giving rise to this action.
- There are two requirements for a Certificate of Occupancy,
one of which is that the group home "is located at least one thousand (1000) feet from another group home, except when a special use permit is issued to allow a [group home] to locate closer than one thousand (1000) feet to an existing [group home]."
- The Thresholds, Inc. ("Thresholds") is a corporation
organized under the laws of Illinois. It is in the business of
providing psycho-social services to individuals with mental
illness, including establishing group homes and other residential
settings in which persons with mental illness can live, aided by
professional staff.
- In May, 1995, Thresholds informed the City of Chicago
Heights by letter that it was considering two parcels of land in
the City on which to build a group home, one of which was
located at 619 West 15th Street.
- Less than one week later, the Chicago Heights City Planner
wrote back to Thresholds that 619 West 15th Street ("the property")
was appropriately zoned for a group home.
- On August 1, 1996, Thresholds acquired legal title to
that property, and began the process of planning to build a group
home there.
- Thresholds also entered into an agreement with a
contractor for the construction of three identical group homes for
persons with mental illness, one of which was the group home at 619
West 15th Street in Chicago Heights.
- On November 24, 1997, Thresholds received a letter from
the Chicago Heights City Planner, which stated that Thresholds
could not construct a group home on the property it had purchased
because there was another group home within 1000 feet. The letter
referenced the spacing provision in the Chicago Heights Zoning
Code.
- Thresholds applied for a special use permit from the City
seeking the reasonable accommodation of waiver of the spacing
requirement.
- When the Plan Commission considered the Thresholds
application on July 29, 1998, many persons from the community, most
of whom identified themselves as neighbors of the proposed group
home, appeared at the meeting to speak against the application.
Their opposition was based on the disability (mental illness) of
the proposed residents of the Thresholds group home. They stated
that persons with mental illness could be dangerous; the group home
would make their property values go down; and the neighborhood was
too dangerous for persons with mental illness. At the end of the
meeting the Plan Commission voted unanimously to recommend that the
City Council deny Thresholds a special use permit.
- On August 14, the Zoning Board of appeals met to consider
the application, but for lack of a quorum, the meeting was
canceled. Community opponents were at the meeting as well and told
the Board they would return with more people when the Board met
again.
- On August 19, 1998, the Zoning Board of Appeals
reconvened. Community residents appeared again and were each given
three minutes to speak. All opposed the group home. Residents
said that mental patients can be violent, that the gunman who shot
two guards at the United States Capitol was mentally ill, that
mental patients go off their medication, and that a high percentage
of released mental patients are violent. A vote on whether to
recommend the special use permit be granted was not taken at that
meeting, because the Corporation Counsel told the Board that to
deny the permit might violate the Fair Housing Act.
- At the next City Council meeting, community opponents
appeared and voiced their objections, even though the Thresholds
matter was not on the agenda. This time the residents directed
their anger at the alderman of the ward in which the group home
would be located.
- The Zoning Board of Appeals did not reconvene to decide
on its recommendation until December 2, 1998. At that meeting, the
Board was presented with a petition signed by residents opposing
the special use permit. The Zoning Board of Appeals unanimously
voted to recommend that the City Council deny the application.
- On December 21, 1998, the City Council met to vote on the
application. Community opponents were there again, and again they
expressed anger at the alderman for letting things get so far.
They again stated their opposition to the group home for
discriminatory reasons. Three members of the City Council voted to
deny Thresholds' application for a special use permit, the three
other members abstained, and the Mayor added his vote to those of
the aldermen who voted to deny the permit. The permit was denied.
- Also at the December 21, 1998, City Council meeting, a
new zoning ordinance was passed, the group home provision of which
restricts far more than the prior ordinance, the circumstances in
which group homes can locate in Chicago Heights.
- The proposed residents of the proposed group home are
handicapped within the meaning of 42 U.S.C. § 3602(h).
- The proposed group home is a dwelling within the meaning
of 42 U.S.C. § 3602(b).
- By denying Thresholds a special use permit because of
community opposition based on discrimination, the City denied the
prospective group home residents a dwelling on the basis of the
handicap (mental illness) of the prospective group home residents
in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(1).
- By denying Thresholds a special use permit because of the
disability of the residents who would live there, the City of
Chicago Heights refused to make a reasonable accommodation in the
application of its Zoning Ordinance in violation of 42 U.S.C.
§3604(f)(3)(B). Waiver of the 1000 foot spacing requirement was
necessary to allow persons with handicaps an equal opportunity to
use and enjoy a dwelling and would not impose an undue burden on
the City.
- By denying Thresholds a special use permit, the City of
Chicago Heights has denied to a group of persons rights granted by
the Fair Housing Act, a denial which raises an issue of general
public importance, and has engaged in a pattern or practice of
resistance to the full enjoyment of the rights granted by the Fair
Housing Act, as provided in 42 U.S.C. § 3614(a).
- Thresholds and the prospective group home residents are
the victims of the City's discriminatory practices and are
aggrieved persons, as defined in 42 U.S.C. § 3602(i). These
persons have suffered, or may have suffered, damages as a result of
the City of Chicago Heights' conduct.
- The City of Chicago Heights' conduct described herein was
willful and taken in reckless disregard of the rights of others.
WHEREFORE, the United States prays that the court enter an
ORDER that:
- Declares that the actions of the City of Chicago Heights
described herein constitute a violation of the Fair Housing Act;
- Enjoins the City of Chicago Heights, its agents,
employees, assigns, successors and all other persons in active
concert or participation with them, from violating any provision of
the Fair Housing Act;
- Enjoins the City of Chicago Heights, its agents,
employees, assigns, successors and all other persons in active
concert or participation with them, to make a reasonable
accommodation in their policies, practices, rules or services that
would permit the construction of a group home at 619 West 15th
Street for eight persons with mental illness;
- Requires such action by the City of Chicago Heights as
may be necessary to restore all persons aggrieved by the City of
Chicago Height's discriminatory housing practices to the position
they would have occupied but for such discriminatory conduct;
- Awards damages as would fully compensate each person
aggrieved by the City of Chicago Heights' discriminatory housing
practices for their injuries caused by such discriminatory conduct,
pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 3614(d)(1)(B); and
- Assesses a civil penalty against the City of Chicago
Heights in order to vindicate the public interest, in an amount of
money authorized by 42 U.S.C. § 3614(d)(1)(C).
Respectfully submitted,
JANET RENO
Attorney General
BILL LANN LEE
Acting Assistant Attorney General
Civil Rights Division
SCOTT R. LASSAR
United States Attorney
JOAN LASER
Assistant United States Attorney
219 South Dearborn Street
Chicago, Illinois 60604
(312) 353-1857