House Bill 311 is scheduled for public hearing at 10 a.m. Tuesday in Concord.
Introduced by Erika Connors, HB 311 essentially encourages municipalities to violate the Civil Rights Act of 1968. That landmark legislation includes the Fair Housing Act, amended in 1988 to include disability. The FHA protects persons with disability from ordinances – like those outlined in HB 311 – that are enacted or enforced solely because of disability. HB 311 specifically targets chemical dependency recoverers who are “considered handicapped under 42 U.S.C. 3601.”
According to the U.S. Department of Justice: “Intentional discrimination does not require that the decision-makers were hostile toward members of a particular protected class. Decisions motivated by a purported desire to benefit a particular group can also violate the act if they result in differential treatment because of a protected characteristic.”
Although HB 311 encourages unlawful violations of FHA, individual cities and towns would assume liability for those violations. And because all municipalities that benefit from HUD funding have a duty to affirmatively further, promote and protect the rights ensured by FHA, municipalities would potentially jeopardize HUD funding if they were to act upon the unlawful violations endorsed by HB 311.
Who would argue with safety measures endorsed by HB 311? If municipalities feel those safety measures are necessary, then they should be enforced upon all citizens equally. Equal regulation, equal enforcement and equal protection preserves civil rights for all New Hampshire citizens without incurring the tremendous legal expenses and fines associated with violations of federal law.
KATHLEEN RYAN
Gilford