Court strikes down public housing provision discriminating against non-nuclear families

By Megan Messerly

Monday, Nov. 9, 2015 | 10:33 a.m.

A federal court struck down a policy Thursday that required grandparents and other caretakers to obtain legal guardianship of minors living in federally-subsidized housing.

The Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority previously required that caretakers be the legal guardians of children living with them in federally-subsidized housing. If not, the caretaker’s housing would be jeopardized.

District Court Judge James Mahan called the housing authority’s policy “discriminatory on its face” and ruled that it violated federal law. Mahan said in the opinion that “this requirement impermissibly discriminates against non-nuclear families(.)”

Nevada Legal Services, which represented plaintiff Antoria Pickens in the case, sued the housing authority in February, alleging that the policy violated the Fair Housing Act. Pickens had added a minor to her household as her temporary guardian — with the permission of the minor’s out-of-state, court-appointed guardian — but had not obtained legal guardianship. In August 2014, the housing authority removed the minor from Pickens’ household and her federal housing subsidy was reduced.

“The reality is that a significant number of low-income households feature children who are living with grandparents or aunts and uncles,” said Ron Sung, an attorney for Nevada Legal Services. “SNRHA’s policy of threatening to terminate these families unless they obtain a court-ordered guardianship essentially forced families to go through a time-consuming and potentially expensive court process that might ultimately affect the ability of these children to later reunite with their parents.”