“We Can’t Meet Your Needs” - Fair Housing Opens Doors to Housing with Services

The Fall 2008 Clearinghouse Review article by Aisha Bierma, Julie Nepveu and I starts with this following:

“I’m sorry; you can’t move here because we can’t meet your needs.” “You must be able to live more independently.” “It’s time for you to go to a nursing home.”


You may hear assisted-living and nursing home providers use such rationales for housing admission and  eviction decisions. Your clients and many housing providers may incorrectly assume that such rejections are legal. With our rapidly increasing aging population, discriminatory denials of housing based on disability are likely to increase. The Fair Housing Act is a powerful and flexible tool to ensure that people with disabilities are treated equally and as individuals who have choices in their housing.  Here we describe the hypothetical case of Peg, a 68-year-old woman refused admission to housing with services; we build on previous articles dealing with how the Act can help clients seeking admission to assisted-living facilities and nursing homes.

end of introduction find Clearinghouse Review through the link in the title of this page.