Zoning Restrictions and Your Group Home

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Zoning Restrictions and Your Group Home

 Your Group Home HAS TO BE a licensed facility right? WRONG. 

 

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You definitely CAN become a licensed Group Home…and there are many advantages and disadvantages to both business models.

We’ve been in group home business for almost 20 years, his homes are not licensed facilities, and we don’t employ any nurses or anything like that. The main reason for going this route is that becoming licensed can be extremely costly, time consuming, and CONFUSING!

“HOW DOES THAT WORK??? The lady at the county told me I need to fill out all this paperwork and take all these classes???”

This is a typical response.


You need to follow all local rules and regulations that are applied to ALL HOUSING PROVIDERS. They are going to regulate everything down to how high your grass can grow in most municipalities but they can’t deploy specific regulations to specific groups of people…like group home owners, veterans, transitioning homeless or ex-prisoners, seniors, people trying to get sober, etc. etc. This is in direct violation of THE FEDERAL FAIR HOUSING ACT as the “Understanding the Business Model” and the “Fair Housing” section in OUR FREE 10 PART COURSE.

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What are some examples of rules and regulations applied to EVERYONE that can affect your business?


 Check out THIS ARTICLE that breaks this down.

Another, is that some areas have maximum occupancy laws. Not all of them but some…particularly “college” towns. They will limit the amount of “unrelated occupants” living in one home. Typically, in areas that DO do this, the number is 6…but some cities, like Tempe, AZ are VERY restrictive and limit this to 3.

That sounds super restrictive right?

Because it is!!!


In fact, many Group Homes have been able to challenge these types of laws for discrimination and WON.

“Oxford House” is a national Sober Living organization and they challenge these rules often.
HERE in North Carolina and in Indiana, HERE for example.
Here is their legal case from the article above…
“Since residents are considered ‘disabled people’ under county ordinances they are considered a protected class under the Fair Housing Act.
“As members of a protected class under the FHA, Oxford Houses are protected against discriminatory zoning practices. As such, the issue of whether an Oxford House is in violation of local zoning ordinances is not relevant to the question of federal law,” the application states. There are several court cases referenced in the application citing precedence for this argument.”
Another common objection we get is that this only works in Texas and Texas is the wild wild west still!


Wrong.


CLICK HERE for an article breaking down some of the conflicting laws on the books in Texas. We stick with the FEDERAL guidelines and have had to go through skirmishes with code enforcement quite a few times. Email me to hear some examples! Also check out our FREE 10 PART COURSE!!

There’s always going to be conflicts between business and government. Government will want more control, more regulation, more fees, more POWER and local businesses typically want the opposite.

Check out your local rules by either going to your county website or contacting them and if you ARE in one of those areas with stricter regulations, use your own discretion. How many of you would move across the COUNTRY for a 60k/year job? You could do that with only 2-3 Group Homes in most areas working part time.  Sign up for our FREE 10 PART COURSE today!

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