A new federal law that prohibits most housing discrimination against families with children is causing great concern at thousands of retirement communities and adult condominium developments, whose residents have developed an older people`s world of their own.
The law was intended to give families with children, whose housing options have been more and more limited, the right to move into housing complexes geared to young adults or singles.
It specifically exempts senior-citizen housing, recognizing that older Americans may have legitimate reasons for maintaining housing that is segregated by age.
But many of the elderly say that the new law, which took effect in March, could destroy the social fabric of their communities because the exemption was not drafted clearly enough to protect them.
”Older people who live in communities of their own age with no children live longer and live happier without all the stress, noise and turmoil,” said Pat Imperato, 84, chairman of the Florida Council of Condo Associations and president of the Seniors Civil Liberties Association, a loosely formed advocacy group based in Florida, which has filed suit to overturn the law.
”Do you know what it does to a 92-year-old woman, who trembles when she breathes, to hear that kids might come next door?” she said.
”It`s a terrible stress, the fear of change, even if it never happens because her condo is exempt from the law.”
Indeed, the regulations on qualifying for the senior-citizen exemption are so vague that many communities that probably would qualify are afraid to risk the law`s heavy penalties and are choosing instead to open their doors to families with children.
The uncertainty has been particularly troublesome at thousands of
”active adult” retirement communities built for adults over age 40 or 50, which must choose between becoming senior citizen housing and cutting off a large pool of potential buyers, or allowing families and alienating many current residents.
The law says that to qualify as senior citizen housing, 80 percent of the units must have at least one resident age 55 or over, and there must be
”significant facilities and services specially designed to meet the physical or social needs of older persons.”
The Department of Housing and Urban Development has issued regulations listing many things, from health services to meals, that might indicate bona fide housing for the elderly.
But even at HUD no one is sure just how much of which services are required.
A HUD spokesman said that he could not comment on why the regulations were not more specific.
”The regulations say you can`t just put a sofa in the laundry room and call it a recreation center, but that`s about the only clear example,” said William Granik, a lawyer at HUD.
”I think that if you have a recreation center that has bridge games and lectures on preparing your will, a shuttle bus to the local medical center, outside maintenance of grounds and no barriers to wheelchairs, that would probably be enough to qualify, but that`s just my opinion.
”Eventually, it will have to be cleared up through litigation.”
Meanwhile, the law presents an ongoing problem at Heritage Hills, an affluent adult condominium development in Somers, N.Y., that, since it opened in 1974 to adults over 40, has pulled a steady stream of buyers attracted by the golf course, the dozens of clubs at the activity center and the quiet orderliness of a place where children are not allowed.
”I`m 64, retired and comfortable, and I don`t need kids running around the pool, running around the tennis court, with the carriages and the screaming and the bicycles,” said Tom Diffley, a Heritage Hills resident who seems the very model of the happy retiree in his plaid golf hat with black pompon.
”To tell the truth, if that happens, I`ll move out.
”It`s a better retirement than I ever could have planned.
”I don`t even like to leave anymore. But it would all be different with kids.”
Patrons of the Heritage Hills library agree.
So do the bridge players, the poker players and the amateur thespians preparing for a drama guild presentation.
They are all well-versed in the particulars of the law and quick to point out that Heritage Hills has everything for older citizens-dozens of clubs at the recreation center and a shuttle bus for people who cannot drive-and nothing, no playgrounds, no sidewalks, no school buses, for children.
Still, the developer, has chosen to allow families with children, rather than risk running afoul of the new law, not to mention slowing sales in an already soft.
Early this year the Heritage Hills owners` society took an age survey to see if it could qualify as senior housing and found that 88 percent of the units had a resident 55 years old or older. And this month, faced with a planned sale to a family with two children, one Heritage Hills group, Condo 2, took a vote on whether the bylaws should be changed to exclude families without at least one member over 55.
The proposal got slightly more than 50 percent but less than the three-quarters needed for passage, so the sale can go forward.
”I don`t expect to see a lot of children moving in,” said Judy Johnson, the real-estate agent handling the sale and a Condo 2 resident.
”There are no playmates for them, and restricted hours at the pool,”
she said. ”But while I`m not eager to see children, I am eager to comply with the law. Both the buyer and seller had already filed complaints with HUD and the Justice Department, and if we were found guilty of discrimination we might be assessed $1,000 a unit to pay the fine.”
The fair housing law was passed after a HUD survey found that a quarter of the nation`s rental units barred children altogether and another 50 percent had some kind of restriction on children such as age restrictions or limits on particular units to families with children.
”A huge portion of the market that was closed to families, especially the so-called singles complexes, needed to be opened up by this law, but we went very far out of our way to accommodate people who live in specialized communities that meet senior citizens` special needs,” said Lisa Mihaly, of the Children`s Defense Fund, a major backer of the bill.
Don Redfoot, of the American Association of Retired Persons, which backed the fair housing law, would agree.
”There is a reason for age-segregated housing where it serves older people,” he said, ”but not where it`s just to keep kids out so older people can enjoy the golf courses. You don`t need to offer medical services and three meals a day and transportation and a full recreational program, but there has to be something special for older people.”
Since the law was passed, HUD has received about 1,700 complaints from families claiming that they have been discriminated against because they have children.
No one knows exactly how many communities have started allowing children and how many have deemed themselves senior citizens` housing. Often the decision depends as much on the real estate market as on the nature of the housing.
”In places where the market`s soft, and there`s already a 20 percent vacancy rate, people are going the family route,” said Colleen Fisher, vice president for government relations at the National Apartment Association, an organization of apartment owners, which opposed the fair housing law.
”You`re not going to restrict yourself to selling to people over 55 when you`re begging for people to move in.”
