MESA – Attorney General Mark Brnovich is suing a mobile home park for denying a woman the right to have a dog in the “no pet zone” of the park.
Brnovich’s Civil Rights Division filed an Arizona Fair Housing Act lawsuit against Brentwood Southern, LLC, d/b/a Brentwood Southern Mobile Home Community, and Kingsley Management Corporation.
According to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, Shelley Graves is an Arizona resident with a disability who uses an emotional support animal, a dog named Chase, to mitigate the symptoms of her disability. On April 29, 2019, Graves attempted to purchase a mobile home and lease land at Brentwood Southern Mobile Home Community in Mesa. Graves’ offer to purchase the home was accepted, but the Brentwood Southern Mobile Home Community’s agent refused to consider Graves’ application to lease the underlying land because Graves had an emotional support animal and the home was located in the “no pet zone” of the community.
Under the Arizona Fair Housing Act, it is unlawful for a person or entity to discriminate against individuals with disabilities in the terms and conditions of their housing. It also is illegal to refuse to provide a reasonable accommodation to a person with a disability if that accommodation is necessary to provide the person with an equal opportunity to enjoy the dwelling of their choice.
The CRD’s lawsuit also alleges that Brentwood Southern Mobile Home Community refused to provide Graves a reasonable accommodation allowing her to lease the land where the mobile home was located. The lawsuit further alleges that the Brentwood Southern Mobile Home Community violated the Arizona Fair Housing Act by refusing to accept Graves’s application and refusing to provide her with a reasonable accommodation because of her disability.
April is Fair Housing Month and 2021 marks the 53rd anniversary of the Fair Housing Act, which was signed into law on April 11, 1968, by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The Fair Housing Act prohibits housing discrimination because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability, or familial status.
In Fiscal Year 2020, the CRD investigated 2,271 allegations of discrimination and obtained a total of $1,020,628.46 in monetary relief for aggrieved parties. The CRD also secured agreements for a wide variety of injunctive relief to proactively alleviate future civil rights violations and for future monitoring.