An Unfinished Journey:

Obstacles to Community Integration: Not in My Neighborhood

As institutions began to close, Minnesota saw dramatic expansion of community-based living options for people with developmental disabilities. But people with developmental disabilities faced an ongoing struggle because of irrational prejudice and fear of change.  
Like other minority groups, people with developmental disabilities had to fight for the right to live in a neighborhood of their choosing.

"People would … say, oh their property values would go down, their children and their women would be at risk."
—Toni Lippert, Met Council regional planner

Zoning laws and restrictive covenants in Minnesota created additional obstacles. In 1980, neighbors tried to stop a group home from opening in their neighborhood in Two Harbors. The neighbors claimed that the proposed group home violated zoning laws because the people in the group home were not a "family" as required in the zoning law. The Minnesota Supreme Court in Costley v. Caromin House disagreed and said that the people living in the home operated as a family. The group home was allowed.

In the City of Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Center, 1985, the U.S. Supreme Court weighed in. The City of Cleburne, Texas, required the operators of group homes for people with developmental disabilities to get a special use permit. This put the group homes in the same category as prisons. The City argued that neighboring property owners and elderly residents feared the group home and that students at a nearby school might harass the residents.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected these arguments, stating, "mere negative attitudes, or fear, … are not permissible bases for treating a [group home] differently from apartment houses."  The Court concluded that the permit requirement rested on "irrational prejudice" and was therefore unconstitutional.

Photo: Black and white photo of a person with gloves on holding a sign that states, "Group Homes are Not Real Homes."

Link to Caromin case PDF: https://disabilityjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/Caromin-Case-Minnesota.pdf