The general position taken for years has been that senior developments are good for towns because they provide ratables, yet they have little or no impact on the local school system. However, recent newspaper articles report that a number of senior developments have children of school age, thus debunking the generally accepted theory.
The Fair Housing Act, and its amendments, are vehicles used by senior housing developments so that they may “legally discriminate” based upon age. This is acceptable so long as the association maintains its established rules and procedures set forth in the Fair Housing Act. While this post is not intended to go through that procedure, it is intended to advise community associations that they may enforce age restrictions set forth in their own governing documents.
Recently, a town in New Jersey concluded that its ordinance pertaining to senior housing (or age restricted communities) mandated that anyone under the age of 19 may not live in any age restricted community within its township boundaries, with limited exception. The association’s governing documents set minimum age requirements which were enforceable. In this situation I believe the Township’s ordinance was to narrow and the Township should have been required to broaden its acceptance of age limitations for restricted communities.
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