Law Commons^™

Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, And Homelessness Post-Bostock, Alaina Richert

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Housing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is a critical problem facing LGBTQ+ people in the United States. In addition, LGBTQ+ people, particularly transgender people, disproportionately suffer from homelessness and face discrimination by homeless shelters on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. This homelessness and discrimination both disproportionately affect transgender people of color. This Note makes two contributions that would enable courts to grant meaningful relief in these contexts. First, it argues that “sex” in the Fair Housing Act includes sexual orientation and gender identity after the holding in Bostock v. Clayton County. Second, …

The Rental Crisis Will Not Be Televised: The Case For Protecting Tenants Under Consumer Protection Regimes, Eric Sirota

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The Foreclosure Crisis of the 2000s has likely hurt renters more than homeowners. Incongruously, however, consumer enforcement agencies have been far more zealous in protecting mortgagors than tenants. This Article explores the under-protection of tenants as a class of consumers, particularly in a “commoditized” rental market, and examines how consumer enforcement agencies can more zealously incorporate tenant-protection into their mandates.

Much of the prior literature on the legal protections afforded tenants was published in the wake of the consumer rights revolution of the 1970s. This Article is the first to carefully reexamine, in the context of the modern rental market, …

Conflict Preemption: A Remedy For The Disparate Impact Of Crime-Free Nuisance Ordinances, Meredith Joseph

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Thousands of municipalities across the country have adopted crime-free nuisance ordinances—laws that sanction landlords for their tenants’ behaviors, coercing them to evict tenants for actions as innocuous as calling 9-1-1 in an emergency. These facially neutral ordinances give wide discretion to municipal officials, leading to discriminatory enforcement of evictions. As a result, these ordinances have a devastating impact on victims of domestic violence and are used as a tool to inhibit integration in majority-white municipalities. Many plaintiffs have brought lawsuits alleging violations of the U.S. Constitution and the Fair Housing Act. However, bringing lawsuits under various anti-discrimination protections presents many …

Establishing A More Effective Safmr System: The Cost And Benefits Of Hud's 2016 Small Area Fair Market Rent Rule, John Treat

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note analyzes the new HUD rule finalized in November 2016, which dramatically changed the structure of the Housing Choice Voucher program in select metropolitan areas. In August 2017, HUD suspended automatic implementation of the rule until 2020 for twenty-three of the twenty-four selected metropolitan areas, but in December 2017, a preliminary injunction was granted requiring HUD to implement the rule as of January 1, 2018. The rule as written changes the method for calculating the vouchers from using a metropolitan area-wide average to calculating a separate level for each zip code. Such a change could greatly deconcentrate poverty and …

It Takes A Village: Designating "Tiny House" Villages As Transitional Housing Campgrounds, Ciara Turner

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

A relatively new proposal to reduce homelessness in the United States involves extraordinarily small dwellings. While the “tiny house” movement is intuitively appealing and has found sporadic success, strict housing codes, building codes, and zoning laws often destroy the movement before it can get off the ground. One possibility for getting around these zoning and building code challenges, without drastic overhauls to health and safety codes, is to create a new state-level zoning classification of “transitional campgrounds.” A new zoning classification would alleviate the issue because campgrounds are consistently subject to less strict building codes, which could permit tiny houses …

Citizen Police: Using The Qui Tam Provision Of The False Claims Act To Promote Racial And Economic Integration In Housing, Jan P. Mensz

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Economic and racial integration in housing remains elusive more than forty years after the passage of the Fair Housing Act. Recalcitrant municipal governments and exclusionary zoning ordinances have played a large role in maintaining and exacerbating segregated housing patterns. After discussing some of the persistent causes of segregated housing patterns, this Note presents a novel approach to enforcing the Fair Housing Act and the "affirmatively furthering fair housing" requirement on recipients of federal housing grants. This Note presents a citizen suit that emerged from the Southern District of New York in Anti-Discrimination Center v. Westchester County, where a private …

Above All Else Stop Digging: Local Government Law As A (Partial) Cause Of (And Solution To) The Current Housing Crisis, Darien Shanske

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

So many things have gone wrong with our housing market that it is hard to know where to start. One simple diagnosis is that we invested too much in houses that were not worth as much as we thought. Looked at in this way, it is relatively easy to see how innovations like interest-only loans contributed to an over-valuation of housing. Certain actions of the federal government were and are also clearly problematic, such as the longstanding tax breaks for home ownership.

This Article looks at state and local government law, and particularly at financing mechanisms created by state law …

An Implied Warranty Of Freedom From Sexual Harassment: The Solution For Harassed Tenants Where The Fair Housing Act Has Failed, Theresa Keeley

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Although sexual harassment in the workplace is recognized as a problem, sexual harassment in housing has largely been ignored. When confronting sexual harassment in housing, courts have borrowed standards for sexual harassment in the workplace. Criticism of this practice exists; however this Article examines the real source of the problem: bringing sexual harassment claims under the Fair Housing Act. Specifically, this Article shows how and why the Fair Housing Act fails to address the problem of sexual harassment in housing. To remedy this failure, this Article proposes an "implied warranty of freedom from sexual harassment" that both restores the tenant's …

Democratizing The American Dream: The Role Of A Regional Housing Legislature In The Production Of Affordable Housing, Thomas A. Brown

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Economic, ethnic and racial residential segregation are ubiquitous across United States metropolitan regions. As a result, the majority of affordable housing is located in central cities or inner-ring suburbs, generally in areas of highly concentrated poverty. Outer suburbs are often exempt from providing significant housing for the economically disadvantaged regional citizens. This should not be. If housing policy in metropolitan regions were established in a democratic fashion, the give-and-take of the political process would create strong incentives for regional cooperation in the creation of affordable housing. Drawing together scholarship in the fields of local government law, administrative law, and housing …

Salvaging The Opportunity: A Response To Professor Clark, Michael J. Yelnosky

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In this Article, Professor Yelnosky responds to Professor Clark's critique of his previous article, Filling an Enforcement Void: Using Testers to Uncover and Remedy Discrimination in Hiring for Lower-Skilled, Entry-Level Jobs. Professor Yelnosky first clarifies that Professor Clark has adopted several of the points Professor Yelnosky originally made in his earlier article. He then responds to the portions of Professor Clark's article that challenge his prior conclusions. He builds on and defends his previous arguments that: (1) testing is best suited to uncover hiring discrimination for lower-skilled jobs; (2) disincentives to bringing tester lawsuits make it unwise to rely …

Redevelopment Redefined: Revitalizing The Central City With Resident Control, Benjamin B. Quinones

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Misguided redevelopment has been both a symptom of, and a means for achieving, inappropriate urban development goals. Requiring resident control will improve the redevelopment process itself, and simultaneously redirect the development goals towards which it channels its energy. One hopes that by shifting control of the redevelopment process, we also would shift the goals that redevelopment would pursue and the development forms it would take. Presumably, this would result in urban development designed to benefit residents of the urban core.

Eliminating The Labyrinth: A Proposal To Simplify Federal Mortgage Lending Discrimination Laws, Stephen M. Dane

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The object of this Article is to demonstrate that the statutory and regulatory framework established by the federal government in its efforts to fight mortgage-lending discrimination is an extremely complicated labyrinth of dead ends, false passages, and elusive goals. Instead of addressing the mortgage-lending discrimination problem directly and comprehensively, Congress has taken a piecemeal and incomplete approach that generally has failed to bring the mortgage-lending industry into equal access compliance.

After pointing out the problems and deficiencies in the current statutory and regulatory scheme, this Article suggests a bold, comprehensive solution to the problem that, if implemented effectively, should ensure …

Accelerating Integration : Effective Remedies In Public Housing Discrimination Suits, Adam M. Shayne

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note examines the different remedies employed by judges to integrate public housing and recommends a standard approach for courts to employ in the future. Part I describes the status of local and federal public housing policy in the United States. Part II examines litigation aimed at achieving the integration of public housing. This Part details short-term remedies employed by judges in several cities and long-term integration efforts by the courts in two cities: Chicago, Illinois, and Yonkers, New York. The Chicago and Yonkers suits exemplify the major obstacles that plaintiffs and judges face in developing appropriate measures to integrate …

Tenants' Rights In Police Power Condemnations Under State Statutes And Procedural Due Process, Eric Wills Orts

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note explores the legal arguments available to tenants who want to resist arbitrary or unjustified condemnations of their buildings. Part I provides an overview of the legal and constitutional structure of the police power to condemn buildings. Part II analyzes state statutes governing the condemnation of buildings. Focusing on the statutory rights to notice and opportunity for a hearing provided to tenants, Part II concludes that a majority of states provide inadequate protection for tenants facing eviction by condemnation. Part II then proposes statutory reform, based on an approach taken by a minority of states. Part III demonstrates that …

Affordable Housing For The 1990'S, Harold A. Mcdougall

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article examines the history of national housing policy and the factors that will influence its future. Part I discusses the role of capital costs in influencing housing policy. Part II summarizes the changes that have occurred in housing policy in the last fifty years. Part III studies how local- and state-level institutions have reacted to these changes. Finally, Part IV predicts the future of national housing policy, focusing particularly on local efforts.

Condominium Conversion Of Residential Rental Units: A Proposal For State Regulation And A Model Act, Bernard V, Keenan

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article has several objectives. Part I provides a foundation for discussion by briefly outlining the relationship between the recent history of the rental housing market and those factors prompting the conversion of apartments to condominium status. With this background information, the relevance of conversion legislation is more readily grasped. Part II seeks to establish that state government is the appropriate governmental entity to formulate legislation intended to protect individuals affected by the conversion of rental units. Federal legislation has addressed this specific issue in the relatively unknown Condominium and Cooperative Conversion Protection and Abuse Relief Act of 1980. In …

Exclusion Of Families With Children From Housing, George Palmer Schober

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note attempts to resolve the most significant problems raised by discrimination against children in housing. Part I briefly analyzes the prevalence of child exclusion in different types of housing. It also provides a statistical analysis of the rental housing market to enable the reader to gauge the extent of the problem in one type of housing. Part II discusses policy arguments supporting both those who seek to exclude children and those who advocate government policies forbidding exclusion. Part III then examines the various approaches that states have adopted in this area, as well as federal implications of the issue. …

Lead-Based Paint Poisoning: Remedies For The Hud Low-Income Homeowner When Neglect Is No Longer Benign, Thomas P. Sarb

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Lead-based paint poisoning is a completely preventable disease which particularly afflicts young children living in deteriorating areas of the cities. It is caused by the ingestion of paint chips containing significant amounts of lead that have fallen or been picked off ceilings, floors, and woodwork of older houses. Repeated ingestion of such paint chips can lead to mental retardation, permanent impairment of intellectual ability, cerebral palsy, and blindness. Every year at least 400,000 children show some effect of lead poisoning; 50,000 of them need treatment; and 200 children die of the disease. The early symptoms of lead poisoning are changes …

Federal Leased Housing Assistance In Private Accommodations: Section 8, Nancy S. Cohen

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The public housing program, which does not involve private developers, was also criticized as wasteful, poorly conceived, and inequitable. Further, it appeared to some that the federal government was assuming the losses caused by the accelerating decline of large cities. As a result of various investigations and HUD audits, the FHA was in a state of chaos after recurring reorganizations. The administration's suspension of housing subsidies on January 5, 1973 was an added impetus for the passage of a new act. The resulting legislation, the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974,20 is the federal government's first significant set of …

Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency Act Of 1972, John A. Stevens

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The 1959 Pennsylvania legislation, while commendable for its goals and its innovative financing concepts, proved inadequate over the years in meeting the changing housing needs in the state. In an attempt to correct the deficiencies of this legislation, Pennsylvania radically revised its housing law by enacting the Housing Finance Agency Act of 1972. This note undertakes a historical analysis of both the 1959 Act and the 1972 Act. Then, the new act is contrasted with similar statutes in other states. Finally, the effectiveness of the Pennsylvania legislation as a stimulate to the development of new low- and moderate-income housing is …

Modern Legislation, Metropolitan Court, Miniscule Results: A Study Of Detroit's Landlord-Tenant Court, Marilyn Miller Mosier, Richard A. Soble

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This article is a description of a study of cases filed and tried in the Detroit, Michigan, Common Pleas Court, Landlord-Tenant Division, during 1970 and 1971. The court is in a large urban center and handles a high volume of cases, in most of which one or both parties appear without an attorney. The impetus for the study was Michigan legislation passed in 1968, which gave tenants additional defenses to summary eviction procedures. The main goal of the study was to observe the effects of the legislation on tenants who were subject to summary proceedings in Detroit. The purpose of …

Judicial Review And Discrimination In Federally Assisted Housing: The Enforcement Of Title Vi, Barry M. Block

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Section 602 of the Act was enacted to enable federal agencies to enforce this policy, and it authorizes them to issue rules and regulations which, while consistent with the objectives of the program authorizing the assistance, effectuate the provisions of Section 601. To enforce these regulations, an agency may terminate assistance to noncomplying programs, or use any other means authorized by law.

Exclusionary Zoning: A Wrong In Search Of A Remedy, Leonard S. Rubinowitz

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This article discusses affirmative approaches to providing effective relief in two types of exclusionary zoning cases: (1) remedies specific to a particular proposed development or a given site and (2) regional remedies, which provide a generalized framework for meeting what courts are increasingly identifying as a regional problem: the need for decent housing for all families. In the first instance (the "single-site" case) a court would remove obstacles in order to facilitate development of low- and moderate- income housing on a particular suburban site. In the second case (the regional approach) a court would specify the obligation of the municipalities …

The Interrelationship Between Excusionary Subdivision Control - A Second Look, Roger A. Cunningham

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The thesis of this article is that the conclusion set out above is both oversimplified and inaccurate. Contrary to the author's contention in his Journal article, there are "viable distinctions between zoning and subdivision control," and consequently the major exclusionary techniques available to suburban communities through "zoning" are simply not available in connection with "subdivision control." Dramatic attempts at racial exclusion through subdivision control are likely to be infrequent. Although subdivision regulations, like zoning ordinances and building codes, require expenditures by land developers which increase the cost of housing and thus tend to exclude the poor, the effect of subdivision …

The Proposed Housing Consolidation And Simplification Act Of 1971, William A. Newman

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This note will describe the operation of selected housing programs and suggest some of the difficulties posed by the current statutory bases for these programs. It will then evaluate the effectiveness of the modifications contained in the proposed bill.

Detroit Housing Code Enforcement And Community Renewal: A Study In Futility, Brett R. Dick, John S. Pfarr Jr.

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This article will demonstrate that the inconsistency is, to a large extent, more apparent than real and results from the application of two different conceptions of the purpose of the program to the same facts. Furthermore, it will be demonstrated that Detroit's Building (housing) Code has failed in its attempt to force rehabilitation of residential structures through Code enforcement. Although it can be made to work more efficiently, the Code will never serve as an effective solution to the housing problem.

Overcoming Barriers To Scattered-Site Low-Cost Housing, Darrel J. Grinstead

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The effect of most zoning devices which have been used in suburban and non-ghetto city planning in the past few decades has been to erect substantial economic barriers around entire cities. These devices include minimum lot size requirements, density zoning, frontage requirements, single family restrictions, and minimum living space requirements. While such zoning practices may not be exclusionary in purpose, exclusion of minority groups has been the result. Moreover, since most minorities are heavily concentrated in low income groups, economic segregation will bring about a high degree of racial and ethnic segregation. Indeed, it has been suggested that these economic …

Persuader: Mobilization Of Support, Mary Ann Beattie

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Law reform can be achieved through precedent-setting case law and through legislation. Each is a time-consuming activity with its own stumbling blocks. To establish law through the case method, one must have a fact situation directly on point with the inequity which one is trying to remedy. In many situations the client must be willing to follow through a long process of trial and appeal, instead of settling for a more immediate but incomplete resolution of his problem. The costs of litigation may become an insurmountable problem. Another difficulty with the test case as a vehicle for law reform is …

Tenant's Attorney: Evaluation Of Impact, Ronald D. Glotta

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The natural question raised by the passage of "Tenant Rights" legislation is whether the new law helps or hinders the practicing attorney representing tenants. In analyzing the package of Tenant Rights Bills enacted in Michigan in 1968 this article will focus on three questions: 1) whether such legislation raises false hopes in being heralded as a major declaration of rights and an effort to solve the problem of housing shortage; 2) whether such legislation actually further oppresses tenants, especially in their exercise of the one effective instrument in their power: collective action; and 3) whether such legislation significantly changes the …

Draftsman: Formulation Of Policy, Carl Schier

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Most low income families rent their living accommodations; for them the lease arrangement is a precarious one at best. It is generally a periodic tenancy from week to week or month to month with the agreement rarely reduced to writing. If the allocation of rights and duties between the parties is spelled out by them at all, it is quite one-sided and normally delineates only what the tenant may and may not do. When there is no written agreement or when the writing is silent as to the obligations of the parties, the common law of landlord and tenant controls, …