Halfway Home for Mentally/Psychologically handicapped Persons

Started by ToddM • 6 replies • 2609 views

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ToddM (Texas)
Posts: 1

Posted:

Our Community in Texas has recently had a homeowner purchase a home and immediately convert it to a “halfway house” for mentally and psychologically handicapped persons. Our community does have the standard deed restrictions in place restricting the home to be used as a single family residence and the same restrictions prohibit using the home to run a business.

Our research has seemed to indicate we have little or no recourse in getting the halfway home removed or shut down based on property codes which prohibit enforcement of these restrictions if the home is used as a “Community Home for Disabled Persons”.

Has anyone here had any dealings with these types of homes being placed in their community and if so, what actions were taken by your HOA and were they successful. Our residents of course are fearful that the home will be poorly operated and issues with some of the patients could impact their families.

SusanW1 (Michigan)
Posts: 5,202

Posted:

Yes, we have a "group home" in our neighborhood. It contains permanent residence for 6 adult people. It's a large house and that is not an unreasonable number of people to be in one house to constitute a "family".

When we first found out that this home was going to be in our subdivision, our HOA Board called a Special Meeting to discuss the issue - UNTIL they were reminded that they were violating the civil rights of people in their plan to meet to try and come up with a plan to prevent certain people from living in our neighborhood. Just as you could not "meet" to discuss how to prevent gays, people of other color, Democrats or any other "special" group from moving in.

The end result? One of the best looking homes in the neighborhood; rarely do we see the people, since they are profoundly handicapped and don't come out (although I have seen a worker pushing a person is a wheelchair for a walk over the past 7 years just a few times.) There is staff parking, but it's usually one or sometimes two vehicles.

The Civil Rights of people must be considered in any inquiry about this issue. Tread VERY carefully. You could get slapped with a class action law suit!

KirkW1 (Texas)
Posts: 1,665

Posted:

You would only be violating the civil rights if you met to discuss how to prevent people who would be clients from living in the neighborhood. You would NOT be violating rights to block a group home under the premise that you don't allow any group homes to exist.

I would recommend you invest the money to speak with your HOA's lawyer. Then you will have an opinion based on knowledge of complex issues. He/she may not be able to render a complete decision in short order, but should be able to tell you if you may have a case without a huge bill.

I would think that if you are a board member, this is the least you could do. If the CC&Rs are enforceable about the homes being single family, then you should be able to force this business to shut down. Just be careful that you remain focused on the fact that this home is a group home and not a single family dwelling.

BrianB (California)
Posts: 2,820

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By KirkW1 on 06/10/2008 1:06 PM
You would only be violating the civil rights if you met to discuss how to prevent people who would be clients from living in the neighborhood. You would NOT be violating rights to block a group home under the premise that you don't allow any group homes to exist.

I would recommend you invest the money to speak with your HOA's lawyer. Then you will have an opinion based on knowledge of complex issues. He/she may not be able to render a complete decision in short order, but should be able to tell you if you may have a case without a huge bill.

I would think that if you are a board member, this is the least you could do. If the CC&Rs are enforceable about the homes being single family, then you should be able to force this business to shut down. Just be careful that you remain focused on the fact that this home is a group home and not a single family dwelling.

Totally agree with kirk on his first statement. He may well be correct in his second statement, but i can't venture an opinion on it because the law and my knowlege of it is a bit fuzzy there.

Totally agree with statement 3... the best way to proceed is with good legal advice.

As for the group home/single family home, the fact that the city has issued an exemption from the definition of a single family home to allow such group homes to be considered as such could cause problems. At the least, it weakens the arguements for you. It would help if your deed restrictions contained a definition of a single family home, because if they rely on the "community" definition, the city took that leg out from under you with their declaration that these homes are considered single family. Kirk's statement about If your CC&Rs are enforceable is the key...

GlenL (Ohio)
Posts: 5,491

Posted:

Halfway Home for Mentally/Psychologically handicapped Persons

Besides if you ban this type of place where would you get future Board members from? I mean let's face it we're all a little off to tackle such a thankless job and put up with the cra..er..stuff we do.

Studies show that 5 out of 4 people have problems with fractions

KarenS11 (Florida)
Posts: 148

Posted:

LOL, Glen, that is so funny...I think. Wait, you may have something there!

I know that Florida has laws against prohibiting group homes. In my, somewhat limited experience, as has been previously stated, group homes can be some of the best kept up homes on the block. Just hope that it will be a home for developmentally disabled, becauce group homes for teens have....teens! Nuf said.

We have three developmentally disabled women whose families have purchased townhouses for them in our neighborhood. Not the same as a group home, to be sure, but they are wonderful neighbors. No loud parties, one loves to help us when we work on our park, another came to our Friday Night wine in the park. We look out for them and they are a part of our neighborhood.

Even with the teen group homes where I have volunteered- the ones that had neighbors treating them like neighbors had less problems. Those kids just want to belong someplace, so if a neighborhood embraces them, there will be less problems. Point being, if it is inevitable, I'd send a welcoming committee and get to know them.

KirkW1 (Texas)
Posts: 1,665

Posted:

The thing is that sometimes CC&Rs do things that the law can't. Often times cities seem to want to push developers to use them to plug the holes the city can't because it would be problematic for existing homes.

As for them being better or worse then a single family home, I can't personally say. I know that the last house I lived in was near a group home getting funds from Texas Mental Health/Mental Retardation Commission. The most noticeable things about it were:
1) There was a small bus parked there much of the time. (I wouldn't want that in my current neighborhood.)
2) I never saw people outside other then to go to or from a vehicle. I think they worked hard to not have interaction with the neighbors.

The reason I would contact the attorney is because there are too many issues that could become complex. For instance, if you do nothing would this affect your ability to stop a fraternity (or similar organization) from buying a house in your area? I can't answer that. But it could be that you can't do anything anyway. Unfortunately, we are stuck with a system where you need to pay some jerk super high fees to tell you what your options are.

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