News: Record-Setting Fair Housing Settlement in Disability Discrimination Case

Senior Federal District Judge Milton Shadur entered an agreed order on April 1, 2008 confirming what is believed to be the largest private settlement of a fair housing/ disability discrimination suit of its kind in Illinois history.

Under the order, the City of Markham will pay $400,000 to settle disability and housing discrimination claims brought in January against the City, its mayor, David Webb, Jr., and other municipal officials by a developmentally disabled resident and the non-profit operator of his group home, St. Coletta’s of Illinois. The order obligates the City to comply with all applicable fair housing laws and to exempt St. Coletta’s from any future ordinances, regulations or licensing requirements for group homes for the developmentally disabled. It also provides that the court will maintain supervisory jurisdiction to enforce its requirements for five years.

The case alleged that Markham city officials systematically blocked St. Coletta’s establishment of a group home for developmentally disabled residents from November, 2007 to January, 2008. The settlement came only after the City was forced to admit that its Mayor personally took the unprecedented step of ordering the water service to the residence cut off in January. The suit also alleged that Markham’s efforts to exclude St. Coletta’s came while the City and Mayor Webb were under a conciliation agreement with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) resolving a prior housing and disability discrimination complaint by another operator of a separate Markham group home for the developmentally disabled, Karriem’s Developmental Services, Inc.

Case Background
St. Coletta’s suit alleged that since November, 2007 the City illegally and deliberately interfered with its installation of safety systems necessary to open a group home for 6 disabled residents by the February 1, 2008, expiration of the lease on their prior residence; that Markham officials denied necessary municipal permits, gave St. Coletta’s inconsistent, inaccurate and bogus interpretations of zoning and other ordinances, held unnecessary City meetings on the group home and even shut off water service, all to keep St. Coletta’s and its disabled residents out.

Within days of the suit’s filing the court ordered the City to issue sprinkler and fire alarm installation permits, then held the City, the mayor and other City officials in contempt for deliberately disobeying its direction to issue the permits, fining the Defendants $2,000 per day for every day they refused to comply. On January 30 the Court issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting the Defendants from interfering with St. Coletta’s establishment and operation of the group home, clearing the way for the residents’ move to Markham on February 11.

St. Coletta’s general counsel, corporate healthcare attorney John Durso, partnered with its lead litigation counsel Nicholas Anaclerio and Jamie Robinson, all of Ungaretti & Harris LLP, in achieving the Plaintiffs’ victory.

About St. Coletta’s
St. Coletta’s of Illinois, Inc. is a non-profit organization founded in 1949 by the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi. Its mission is to provide community-integrated residential, educational, and vocational services for children and adults who have developmental disabilities without regard to race, creed, or economic status.

For more information about the decision and its subsequent media coverage, please click the following link: Extensive Media Coverage of Record-Breaking Settlement in Fair Housing/Disability Discrimination Case.