Supportive-living center in North Aurora settles discrimination case
The Department of Housing and Urban Development has announced a settlement with a company that runs supportive-living centers over claims the company illegally denied housing to women from Elgin and Chicago who had been diagnosed with mental illnesses.
Eden Management LLC, which runs centers in North Aurora, Champaign and Chicago, illegally rejected applicants who had a mental illness, according to a HUD news release. It was doing so regardless of the illness; whether the person still had the illness; and without specifically determining whether that person's condition would prevent them from living successfully at the center.
The practice violated the Fair Housing Act and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
In 2013, Kimberly O'Connor of Elgin sued Eden and its owners in federal court. The suit also named several Illinois officials, including administrators of the Department of Health Care and Human Services, the Department on Aging, the Department of Human Services, and the state's Medicaid director.
HOPE Fair Housing Center of Wheaton, a HUD Fair Housing Initiatives Program agency, helped file the suit and the HUD complaint. Tammy Mormino of Chicago joined the suit later.
Both women had physical disabilities and illnesses which prevented them from living independently. The Eden facilities offer meals, housekeeping, assistance with hygiene, medication oversight and more, in studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments.
The federal suit claimed that because O'Connor could not get into Eden's North Aurora center, she became homeless. Mormino has been forced to live in a nursing home, which is more restrictive than she requires, according to the suit.
Under terms of the Conciliation and Voluntary Compliance agreement, Eden will pay the complainants $630,000 for relief and attorneys fees and costs.
It will have to stop asking applicants about the existence of mental disabilities or prescriptions while conducting tours of its facilities; change its admissions manual and handbook; update its nondiscrimination statement; establish a "reasonable accommodation" policy; and train employees about fair housing.
It will also have to develop a plan to apply objective admissions criteria, and notify applicants of their due process rights.
In return, HOPE, O'Connor and Mormino agree to drop Eden from their suit, and to not speak about the settlement.
A representative of Eden could not be reached Thursday for comment.
The federal suit will still stand against the state officials.
According to the federal suit, HOPE had investigators call the Eden facilities, plus Tabor Hills in Naperville, Eastgate Manor in Algonquin and Courtyard Estates in Peoria. For all of them, once the investigators told the centers the person seeking housing had been diagnosed with a mental illness, representatives said that state regulations prohibited them from taking people who had been diagnosed with a mental illnesses.
According to a fact sheet on the state's website for the Illinois Supportive Living Program, people who have a primary or secondary diagnosis of a "serious and persistent mental illness" are not eligible for the program.