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?