Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Illinois State-supported housing provider accused of bias against mentally ill


The private operators of a chain of state-supported housing facilities serving people with physical disabilities are improperly screening out applicants with mental health issues, a federal lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit accuses Eden Supportive Living of maintaining a discriminatory “no mental illness” policy at its residences in Chicago, North Aurora and Champaign.

HOPE Fair Housing Center brought the case last month on behalf of a 44-year-old Kane County woman who the group says became homeless for a period following her rejection.

HOPE used undercover “testers,” posing as housing applicants or family members of applicants, to confirm the woman’s allegations that Eden representatives told her they could not accept her if she had any kind of mental health diagnosis.

In one instance, an Eden marketing director left the fake applicant a message stating: “Here at Eden, it’s for people 22 through 64, plus physical disability. No mental illness.”

In two other cases, the undercover callers were specifically informed by Eden personnel that a diagnosis of bipolar disorder was enough to rule them out from consideration, court records indicate.

“That’s the kind of discrimination that the Fair Housing Act is trying to stop,” said Jennifer Soule, a lawyer representing HOPE and the alleged victim.

If you know anything about how commonly someone is diagnosed as bipolar, then you know that such a policy would exclude a whole bunch of people unnecessarily — including many very high-functioning individuals.

It’s hard for me to believe such a practice could be possible in this day and age, but I suppose it’s easier for a company to make a blanket policy based on outdated stereotypes about mental illness than to assess each person individually — as should be the case.

Just because somebody has a mental health diagnosis doesn’t really tell you much of anything without drilling down to find out how that condition affects the individual in his or her everyday life. Maybe the person would be a lousy tenant, or maybe they’d be a great tenant.

Anne Houghtaling, HOPE’s executive director, said the organization had received prior complaints about Eden and is now “looking into the issue on a broader basis” to see if other facilities are following the same practice.

The issue is important enough to have attracted the involvement of the AARP Foundation, a charitable affiliate of AARP, which is lending its legal support to the plaintiffs.

Unfortunately, I was unable to make connections Monday with the owners and operators of Eden Supportive Living to hear their side of the story.

The suit also names the state of Illinois as a defendant, because the state regulates supportive living facilities such as those operated by Eden and funds them through Medicaid.

The state’s supportive living facility program is designed to allow individuals with physical disabilities to live independently in apartment-like settings while receiving personal care and some other services. Many of these individuals would otherwise be placed in nursing homes.

Soule said state regulations should be changed to clarify that housing applicants may not be excluded from the program based on a mental illness diagnosis alone.

Nobody disputes that having a physical disability is a threshold requirement of the program. But, of course, many people with physical disabilities also have mental health issues.

In this case, the Kane County woman sought supportive housing services from Eden in October 2012 as she prepared for discharge from a hospital where she had received treatment for unspecified physical medical conditions.

Court records do not disclose her physical disability or mental health diagnosis but indicate she would qualify for Medicaid benefits for a supportive living facility. She suffers from a severe heart condition, ruptured discs and recurring ulcers that limit her mobility and physical endurance.

She contends Eden representatives twice informed her they could not accept anyone with her mental health diagnosis. She maintains she would require no additional supportive services from Eden as a result of her mental health issues and meets all other program requirements.

After she was rejected, the woman ended up living in homeless shelters before eventually finding a new home, the lawsuit says.

“It’s important to get this straightened out,” Soule said.

Email: markbrown@suntimes.com
Copyright © 2013 — Sun-Times Media, LLC

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