HUD Charges Connecticut Landlord with Violating the Fair Housing Act

HUD, Jul 16, 2007

Disabled child allegedly denied use of service animal

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced today that it has charged Mahmoud Hussein, a landlord in Windsor Locks, Conn., with violating the Fair Housing Act by refusing to renew the lease of a woman whose disabled child needs a service animal.

In early June 2005, Ann Mitchell asked to have her housing voucher transferred from Pennsylvania to Connecticut. After contacting the Windsor Locks Housing Authority regarding available properties, the authority referred her to Hussein’s single-family rental property, which was listed as being available.

In late June 2005, Mitchell said she went to look at the property and explained to Hussein that her daughter suffers from a disability and requires a service animal. Hussein allegedly told Mitchell that he would not rent the house to her if the service animal was going to be present. Because she needed to get her daughter settled before school began, Mitchell placed her daughter’s service animal with another family and signed a one-year lease with Hussein in July of 2005.

By September of that year, the frequency and severity of her daughter’s seizures had increased. The daughter’s doctor attributed this to the loss of her service animal and recommended that Mitchell get a “therapy dog” for her daughter.

For more information on this incident, please visit www.hud.gov for the full article.