Re: ACLU Sues Ronald McDonald House for Refusing To House People Convicted of Assault

[ACLU Nazis]

On 24 Feb 2022, bruce bowser <bruce2...@gmail.com> posted some
news:c54234ca-b6d3-4980...@googlegroups.com:

> Criminals with felony assault convictions do not belong around others
> they could harm, nor do they deserve charity. Fuck them.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the New York Civil Liberties
Union (NYCLU), and the Legal Action Center (LAC) are suing Ronald
McDonald House Charities and its Hudson Valley chapter, for not
providing discounted housing to people with felony assault convictions,
a policy they say is a violation of the Fair Housing Act and New York
human rights law.

"Government agencies have long warned housing providers that unjustified
and unnecessary blanket bans from housing based on criminal history
disproportionately harm Black and Latine people and are unlawful," said
Amanda Meyer, an ACLU attorney in a press release.

Ronald McDonald House Charities, a non-profit partially funded by but
distinct from the McDonald's fast food company, runs Ronald McDonald
Houses on or near hospital campuses across the country, where families
with children undergoing longer-term hospitalizations can stay for a
nominal sum.

The ACLU, NYCLU, and LAC are suing on behalf of New York resident Juan
Mieles, whose application to stay at a Ronald McDonald House was
rejected because of his criminal history.

Mieles had applied to stay at the Ronald McDonald House at the
Westchester Medical Center—where his 17-year-old son was receiving
cancer treatments—back in 2022. The charity rejected his application
after a criminal background check turned up a 12-year-old felony assault
conviction, for which he'd been incarcerated.

Mieles tried to appeal the decision, stressing the time since his
conviction and the role he played in his son's care, but the charity
didn't budge. Unable to stay at the Ronald McDonald House, Mieles
instead had to drive an hour one-way from his home in Queens during his
son's six-week cancer treatment course.

The Ronald McDonald House Charities didn't respond to Reason's request
for comment.

His lawsuit describes this as a hardship for Mieles and his family. The
complaint argues that blanket bans on people with criminal convictions
are illegal under the federal Fair Housing Act.

The federal Fair Housing Act bans racial discrimination in housing
provision. Subsequent fair housing case law and federal regulations have
widened the definition of racial discrimination to include neutral
policies that have a "disparate impact" or "discriminatory effect" on
particular racial groups.

The ACLU and co. argue in their lawsuit that the Ronald McDonald House
Charities' policy on criminal convictions violates this disparate impact
standard, given the higher rates at which black and "Latine" individuals
are convicted of crimes.

Their lawsuit cites 2022 regulatory guidance issued by the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) saying that blanket
bans on people with criminal convictions can violate the Fair Housing
Act. HUD says that housing providers' criminal conviction policies
should, at a minimum, give room for individual assessment of the
circumstances of the crime and the time elapsed since the crime.

Critics have long argued that the disparate impact standard often leaves
housing providers guessing at what policies of theirs might end up being
illegal.

"There's no way to really know that you're going to be facing potential
liability down the road," Ethan Blevins, an attorney with the Pacific
Legal Foundation, told Reason last year. "It does put landlords in a
really tough position, and it's tough to know what a court will find
legitimate."

The ACLU and other fair housing groups have filed several lawsuits
against housing providers for maintaining policies they say have illegal
disparate impacts. Last year, the ACLU, alongside several Illinois fair
housing groups, sued a Chicago-area landlord for not renting to people
with past evictions.

Their lawsuit against Ronald McDonald House Charities asks that Mieles
be awarded compensatory and punitive damages and that the charity stop
enforcing its criminal convictions policy.

https://news.yahoo.com/aclu-sues-ronald-mcdonald-house-210557787.html