Law Eases Way for Child Ban in Senior Housing
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WASHINGTON — President Clinton has signed legislation that makes it easier for retirement communities and senior citizen housing projects to exclude children as residents.
Clinton signed the measure without comment Thursday. Sponsors said the law will help protect facilities for senior citizens from discrimination lawsuits.
The law eliminates language in the 1988 Fair Housing Act that made it more difficult to win an exemption from a provision banning discrimination against children.
The law had required that senior citizen housing have “significant facilities and services” for senior care before children could be banned.
Providers of senior citizen housing now can exclude children by showing that 80% of their units are occupied by people age 55 and older--an easier legal standard to meet.
The measure was approved this month by voice vote in the House and by 94 to 3 in the Senate.
Sponsors said attempts by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to set guidelines or senior citizen housing failed to protect them fully from discrimination charges.
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