Prohibit kids? No, but senior housing communities exempt

The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination against households with children. This “familial status” prohibition is one of the law’s protected classes.

But there’s an important exemption to this prohibition: senior housing. Housing communities intended for seniors can legally limit access to households with children.

Communities are considered senior housing under the familial status exemption if the units are either 100 percent occupied by persons over 62 years or 80 percent of the occupied units are inhabited by at least one person 55 years or older.

Because the exemption can allow up to 20 percent of the units to be occupied by families with children, provided that the community or facility doesn’t violate state or local antidiscrimination law, these families can lawfully be restricted from certain benefits of the community or otherwise treated differently than the senior households.

For example, families with children could be restricted from use of the community center or be allowed to use the pool only during certain hours. And, of course, the housing facility or community doesn’t have to allow families with children to move in at all.