AIDS Services Org Sues to End Illegal Restrictions on Group Home
GLAD has sued Gilsum, N.H., a small town near Keene, for illegally restricting services to people with HIV and Hepatitis C. We represent AIDS Services for the Mondanock Region (ASMR) which operates the Cleve Jones Wellness House, a group home where clients who cannot live independently receive intensive support and services.
When ASMR first attempted to open the home in 2005, Gilsum residents circulated a petition indicating that the area “is a family neighborhood with children and a facility like that is not wanted here.” Then they voted to change the town’s zoning laws to make group homes a prohibited use. When the town realized, however, that the outright exclusion of Wellness House would violate antidiscrimination laws that protect people with HIV, it granted ASMR a variance to operate the house. But the variance prohibited from living at Wellness House anyone who has been released from prison within the last 12 months; has a history of drug or alcohol abuse and has not been substance-free for 12 months; or who has been convicted of a list of certain criminal offenses.
GLAD’s lawsuit asserts that the variance conditions violate New Hampshire zoning laws as well as the guarantee of equal protection in the New Hampshire Constitution. “These restrictions make it impossible for the people with HIV and Hepatitis C who most need the support of a group home to get the services they need,” says Attorney Ben Klein. “We need to challenge the unfounded fear that certain populations affected by HIV and Hepatitis C are dangerous. All the evidence demonstrates that group homes don’t increase crime or undermine public safety. This is outright prejudice.”
ASMR is represented by Bennett Klein and Michele Granda of GLAD and Stephen Bragdon of Bragdon & Berkson, PC of Keene.