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Case Study: Beaumont, Texas Selection from a Press Release from the Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs, May 4, 2016 JUSTICE DEPARTMENT REACHES $475,000 SETTLEMENT WITH BEAUMONT, TEXAS, TO RESOLVE DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION IN HOUSING LAWSUIT The Justice Department today announced that the city of Beaumont, Texas, has agreed to pay $475,000 and change its zoning and land use practices to resolve a lawsuit alleging that it discriminated against persons with intellectual or developmental disabilities who sought to live in small group homes in the city's residential neighborhoods. The lawsuit, filed on May 26, 2015, alleged that the city violated the Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act when it imposed a one-half mile spacing rule that prohibited many small group homes from operating in Beaumont. The suit further sought to prohibit the city from imposing fire code requirements that exceeded those imposed by the state of Texas as part of its certification and funding of such homes. These restrictions prohibited numerous persons with intellectual or developmental disabilities from living in Beaumont and resulted in the institutionalization in a nursing home of a woman who was forced to move out of her home.. . Under the terms of the consent decree, the city will allow small group homes to operate in any residential district and will not subject such homes to fire code requirements that exceed the state's requirements for certification of such homes... Beaumont will take other remedial measures, including implementing a comprehensive reasonable accommodation policy, requiring its officials to attend fair housing training and appointing a fair housing compliance officer. "Persons with disabilities have the same right to live in and enjoy their communities as all other families do throughout our nation," said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Civil Rights Division. "The Justice Department will continue to eliminate discriminatory barriers that impede these individuals from doing so." The lawsuit arose as a result of complaints filed with HUD by persons with intellectual or developmental disabilities whose homes were closed and were threatened with closure under the city's challenged housing restrictions. After conducting an investigation, HUD referred the matter to the Justice Department. The individuals who had filed complaints with HUD later intervened in the United States' lawsuit. Today's settlement resolves their lawsuit as well. 35