City finds Knollwood Village in violation of fair housing rules

0

The City of Boulder determined on July 2 that Knollwood Village was in violation of the City’s fair housing rules by enforcing a rule in their covenant that mandated that two or more people could only live in one of the complex’s units if they could prove they were married or similarly related.

The battle was outlined in a July 2 Boulder Weekly story, “Two’s Company.” Essentially, the Knollwood Village board of directors decided to start enforcing a clause that had been in the complex’s covenant since its inception more than 40 years ago. The sudden enforcement came after a complaint of unruly neighbors. The clause stipulated that only married couples, families or one single tenant could rent the units. So the board hired a lawyer and determined that a single family would be any two or more people with a blood or legal relation that could prove a financial interdependency. It sent a note to any tenants or owners who were then in violation of that clause that they needed to leave.

So three single tenants living together petitioned the City’s Human Services Department claiming they were being discriminated against based on their marital status. Alan Press, the president of the Knollwood Village board, said that because the complex would allow one single, unmarried tenant to rent a unit, they were not discriminatory of marital status.

However, the city attorney’s office ruled the complex was in violation of Boulder Revised Code section 12-1-2, which prohibits housing discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status and other protected categories.

The City will now work with Knollwood Village to eliminate the enforcement of the offending clause. The three tenants that originally petitioned the City represent the maximum number of unrelated tenants in a single housing unit as required by local law.