A proposal that worked its way through the recently ended Congressional session threatened to add burdensome, and possibly illegal, new restrictions on the ability of group homes for recovering substance abusers and other mentally ill individuals to operate in residential neighborhoods.

Designed as an amendment to the 1988 federal Fair Housing Act, the bill, introduced by Representative Brian Bilbray (R-Calif.), was written to allow states and localities to use zoning laws to restrict the number of unrelated persons living in one dwelling and the proximity of such facilities to one another.

The bill was targeted specifically at convicted sexual offenders, felons, and recovering drug addicts. When Congress passed the Fair Housing Act, however, it pointedly excluded the first two categories as well as persons currently using illegal drugs from the new law's protections, leaving recovering substance abusers as the primary targets of Bilbray's proposal.

In testimony before a House Judiciary subcommittee in September, a coalition of advocacy groups headed by the Judge David Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law impressed on Congress the serious setback this bill would impose on the treatment of those recovering from mental illness and raised the issue of its possible illegality.

Representing the coalition, attorney Michael Allen of the Bazelon Center stressed, "Under the guise of protecting communities from 'convicted felons' and 'registered sex offenders'. . .the bill would remove important protections for people with disabilities."

Allen told the committee that not only are mental health professionals firmly in agreement about the value of community-based housing, but also "people with disabilities want, need, and deserve the same range of housing choices available to people without disabilities." That means, he said, the freedom to choose to live in a setting "that will allow them to pursue education and training, employment, recreation, and other aspects of the American dream."

To clarify further its intent concerning the need to encourage establishment of community group homes for recovering alcohol and drug abusers, Congress followed its passage of the Fair Housing Act two months later with the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, Allen reminded the committee. This legislation called for the federal government to form partnerships with state agencies for the "development, maintenance, and improvement of community-based alcohol and drug abuse programs."

He emphasized as well that Bilbray's bill contradicts the U.S. Supreme Court's 1995 ruling in the case Edmonds v. Oxford House in which the Court said that localities can override the provisions of the Fair Housing Act only "to protect health and safety by preventing dwelling overcrowding." Any regulations based on the family relationships or disability characteristics of a group home's residents violates Congress's intent in passing the Fair Housing Act, Allen said.

"These homes provide a supportive, drug-free living environment in which the primary goal of every resident is to remain drug free and assist others in doing so," he emphasized. "Without such homes, many individuals would be forced to return to homes and neighborhoods infested with drugs and be at much greater risk of relapse."

Following the coalition's testimony, Judiciary Committee members decided against bringing up the bill for a vote. Allen told Psychiatric News, however, that with communities nationwide seeking ways to limit the number and size of group homes in their residential neighborhoods, he expects the proposal to resurface in the next session of Congress, which begins in January.

Other organizations in the coalition are the Arc, which was formerly the Association of Retarded Citizens; the Legal Action Center, which focuses on legal and policy aspects of alcohol, drug, and AIDS issues; the National Association of Protection and Advocacy Systems, which provides training and assistance to each state's protection and advocacy agency; the National Fair Housing Alliance; and the Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs.

(Psychiatric News, October 18, 1996)