Wednesday, September 29, 1999
Condo owners sued over family-size cap
BY BEN L. KAUFMAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
For the first time, the Tristate's open-housing organization has sued a condo developer and two owners' associations over limits on family size.
“It hurts people who have the money to buy but only so much money,” said Karla Irvine, executive director of Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME). “They can't afford another bedroom, and it prices them out of the market.”
Defendants are Hal Homes Limited 3, Hal Homes Inc., and Regency Run and Arbor Woods Condominium Owners Associations.
The suit, filed Friday by attorneys Timothy M. Burke and Jonathan M. Holifield in U.S. District Court, seeks at least $250,000 for the Walkers, $100,000 for HOME and punitive damages of $500,000 which they would share.
The complaint also asks Judge S. Arthur Spiegel to bar family discrimination at the two condo developments.
Mr. Holifield said Tuesday that Harold R. Silverman, of Harcourt Drive, Springdale, was the developer of both condo projects.
HOME sued after Taisha C. Walker of Pennington Court, Parkdale, complained that she was turned away in May from Regency Run in Pleasant Run.
Ms. Walker has three children and said the saleswoman told her, “We have a community rule. Two adults and one child per unit.”
HOME testers reported similar rejections.
HOME said it sent a tester to Arbor Woods, in Dent, because it was another Silverman development and encountered the same one-child rule.
Sales reps at both places suggested other developments that would welcome Ms. Walker and her three children, the suit says.
Using a federal “common sense” guide that assumes two people can occupy a bedroom, Ms. Irvine said sales reps at both condo developments erred by turning away the Walkers.
Where any children are welcome, federal and state laws bar discrimination based on family size.
Ms. Irvine said HOME also tested the same two condo developments for racial discrimination and found none.
Even so, Ms. Irvine said, race is implicated because the alleged discrimination against the Walkers denied a black family a chance to buy the home of its choice.
Ms. Irvine estimated that black family home ownership is about 25 percent in Hamilton County, compared with 45 percent for whites in the same area and 76 percent for whites nationally.
Mr. Silverman could not be reached for comment.
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