Fair Housing vs. Unfair Housing

Do you know the difference?

Knowing the difference between fair housing and unfair housing isn't as obvious as you might think. This blog aims to present a variety of important and interesting fair housing issues.

If you're an apartment professional, avoid costly mistakes by reading the stories of others who — even with good intentions — learned compliance lessons the hard way. (For the easy way, click here.)

If you live in an apartment, get familiar with your rights when it comes to housing discrimination, as well as your options for seeking justice.


Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Mobile Home Park's "Report Card Policy" Gets Bad Grades

According to a September 23, 2008 report by Local10.com, the owners of a Florida mobile home park denied housing to a father and his 9-year-old son after learning that the boy got a bad grade (an "F" in conduct in his science class) on his school report card. The owners claimed it was just part of a valid effort to keep out troublemakers.

But the father argued that the owners' policy, which required children to submit quarterly report cards and that apparently made their continued housing contingent upon receiving good grades, violated the Fair Housing Act's ban on familial status discrimination. The owners changed their minds and welcomed the father and his son into their mobile home park.

Is such a policy fair since it only denies housing to certain families with children (i.e., those with children who receive bad grades)? Is this type of policy fair only as long as similar "anti-troublemaking" screening policies are imposed on adults? If the boy had gotten an "F" in something other than conduct, should that matter?

What do you think?

2 comments:

MOBILEHOME PARK SCAM ALERT said...

The injustice in California Mobilehome Residency Law 2009

www.mscam.org hightlights

The higher the space rent the lower the value of the mobilehome. As the cost of space rent rise to $1100 per month, the mobile home cannot be resold. Over $1500 per month mobilehome owners will abandon their home and the park owner will acquire the house. Then the park owners can and will sell the mobilehome to a new owner with new lower rent of $700. Then the circle of unfair and unethical practice is repeated , this happens forever.

Park owners increase the rent on each sale/transfer up to 10%. It causes the rent to rise up to 259% for the 10th resale. In addition to increasing rent on the sale of the mobile home, the park owners increase rent annually by 5%. This annual increase is more benefit than lending a mortgage loan at 5%, 30 years fixed, because park owners do not lend a penny for this similar loan. And it is 30 years because the mobilehome owners will abandon their home sooner or later. To understand this evil scam, compare to the minimum payment by government or your salary increase based on inflation, or the price of the house increase in the market.

By restricting sublease, the California Mobilehome Residency Law kills the property right of the homeowners. This allows for the park owners to steal the value and in other words to rob mobile homes from innocent people. The law makers mistakenly treat the mobilehome owners as tenants who have no property, basically the same as if they were renting an apartment.

To run away from any potential punishment for this evil scam, park owners sell their park and this requires evictions to all of the mobilehome tenants, disregard the Detrimental Reliance/Estoppel doctrine.

It is the injustice that American cannot tolerate.

Anonymous said...

I do agree! I worked in a mobile home park, that takes advantage of their residents,in the same matter you stated. Is there any solution to this madness and scams by park owners? Is there a law, or can we create a law to protect the mobile home owner, from such abuse.?