Company sues to get group home in Holladay

A company seeking to put a group home for criminals in a Holladay neighborhood won't be shut out of the city without a fight.

Futures Through Choices filed a lawsuit against the city of Holladay in federal court Tuesday to get a business license for a home with five male felony offenders, ages 16-21, who have low IQs and are in the custody of the state Division of Juvenile Justice.

City manager Randy Fitts denied the license for a home at 2180 E. Sunnybrook Way last month based on community risk. The decision followed months of outcry from neighbors.

The suit alleges that those residents swayed the city's decision with "stereotypes, fear and hatred" of the proposed home residents. The suit also charges the city denied the license based on the handicaps of the group-home residents, a move Futures Through Choices says violates the federal Fair Housing Amendments Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Utah Fair Housing Act.

"Defendant City of Holladay acted intentionally to discriminate against plaintiffs because of the handicaps of the proposed group home residents," the suit states. "Futures Through Choices provided voluminous data demonstrating that the group home residents pose no significant risk or direct threat to the public health or safety of the Holladay community."

City Attorney Craig Hall said city officials were not prepared to respond to the allegations Tuesday.

Aaron Murdock, attorney for anti-home group Concerned Citizens for Safety in Holladay, said the city's assessment of risk was not based on fear but derived from the Division of Juvenile Justice's contract with Futures Through Choices.

The division could place boys in the home who "may have displayed predatory or fixated patterns of offending, use of force or weapons in committing offenses" and who "present a significant risk to the community."

"We're taking the state at its word. That's where the alarm comes from," Murdock said.

Futures Through Choices CEO Jerry Jefferies was unavailable for comment Tuesday but has repeatedly emphasized to Holladay residents that the chance is remote of having someone in the group home as dangerous as the division's language depicts.

Murdock, however, said such an assumption is unfounded because the state classification of residents allows the division to place whomever they want in the home.

"The state can make him take people who are as bad as the description says. That's the outer limit, sure, but it could happen," he said.