Fair Housing Act

The Justice Department acted Friday to force a prosperous St. Louis suburb to allow a home for eight Alzheimer's patients to open there. Last November, Creve Coeur, one of St. Louis' western suburbs, ordered Dolan Residential Care Centers, a nonprofit group, to stop construction of the home, the department said in a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in St. Louis.

The Justice Department sued the city of Milwaukee for blocking construction of a senior citizen facility, allegedly because it would mainly serve American Indians. In a suit filed in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee, the government alleged the city violated the Fair Housing Act by refusing to grant a permit for nonprofit groups to build a facility to house and serve elderly Native Americans.

The Justice Department sued Waukegan, Ill., to block a housing ordinance the government alleged was enacted and enforced to limit the number of Latino families who could live there. The government alleged that Waukegan, which is 35 miles north of Chicago, violated the Fair Housing Act with an ordinance that sought to restrict the number of people related by blood or marriage who could live together. In a complaint filed in U.S.

Housing discrimination remains "a significant problem" despite 20 years of federal effort to root out bias in the real estate and mortgage industries, Assistant Atty. Gen. William Bradford Reynolds said Friday at a conference marking the 20th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act. Reynolds said the agency's campaign to fight discriminatory housing practices has been "impressive," but critics of the Administration disagreed.

Max Mont, 74, a lifelong union activist who at his death was executive director of the Jewish Labor Committee. Mont helped organize the Emergency Committee to Aid Farm Workers in the early 1950s and subsequently worked with Cesar Chavez in the formation of the United Farm Workers of America.

A federal appeals court ruled Monday that the federal Fair Housing Act can be used to protect an Idaho adoption agency director whose attempts to find homes for black and Asian children in western Idaho were met with racially motivated threats of violence. The U.S.

Question: For several years I have been undergoing psychotherapy for a nervous illness, which has now been diagnosed as a general anxiety disorder. I live at an apartment complex that does not allow pets, but my psychiatrist has recently urged me to get a companion animal, which she thinks would give me a positive relationship that would alleviate my anxiety. A friend helped me find a very nice cocker spaniel puppy that was up for adoption. I asked my community manager to allow me to adopt this dog and bring him to live with me. The manager refused, telling me that he was only obligated to allow a service animal such as a guide dog. He said he did not have to accommodate a pet that merely kept me company.

The residential matchmakers at Roommates.com aren't engaged in housing discrimination when they heed their clients' preferences for whom they are willing to share their inner sanctum with, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday. "There's no place like home," the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals stated in defending the home as the most private of places and beyond the government's power to regulate. The ruling overturned a federal judge's decision two years ago that Roommates.com was facilitating discrimination and ordered the service to cease asking clients to state their gender, sexual orientation and whether or not children were among the prospective tenants.

Craigslist is not liable for discriminatory housing ads posted on its website, a federal appeals court has ruled. The decision is a victory for the Internet bulletin board, on which more than 30 million people a month post offers to buy, sell or rent goods and services, including housing, free of charge. A group of Chicago lawyers sued the site in 2006 because some of its housing notices illegally discriminate on the basis of race, gender, religion and ethnicity. Various ads say "no minorities" or "no children."