June 30 , 2007

New Hope Seeks to Restrict Group Homes
By Frank Anderson, ARRM Deputy Director

Other municipalities are watching the activity, and some have started tentative procedures to also restrict group home placement and development, including St. Louis Park. New Hope created the obstacle by New Hope Mayor Martin Opem calling for a moratorium on group homes until the city can control where this type of housing is located.

In the meantime, New Hope has started requiring that group homes be inspected as rental property, and pay rental property fees. But of greater immediate concern to ARRM members is a New Hope document entitled “Disorderly Behavior at Registered Rental Units” which may be used to arbitrarily discriminate against people with disabilities.

The Federal Fair Housing act was established in reaction to local government units and neighborhoods restricting access to their neighborhoods to specific groups, usually minorities, or in this case people with disabilities. The Act requires that cities make reasonable accommodations to allow people with disabilities to live in the residential neighborhood of their choice. New Hope Mayor Martin Opem seems to wish to reinstate this restriction and let the city government decide who can live where.

ARRM has formed a task force and has sent a letter of concern to the New Hope City Administrator. We have been coordinating our efforts with the Minnesota Disability Law Center and learned last week that the Disability Law Center has identified a guardian who is interested in becoming a client for MDLC to write a letter to the city's attorney objecting to the ordinance. That letter should go out next week.

As Bruce Nelson, ARRM Executive Director was quoted in the STARTRIBUNE article, “The real issue is people having a right to live where they want, whether they have a disability or are a religious or ethnic minority.”