Unwed couple sues town over housing flap

Unwed couple sues town over housing flap

Fri Aug 11, 2006 5:30 PM ET
By Carey Gillam

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - A Missouri couple who must get married, or move, in order to comply with a housing ordinance in Black Jack, Missouri, sued the town on Thursday, claiming rules prohibiting the unmarried couple and their children from living together are unconstitutional.

The petition, filed in the Circuit Court of St. Louis County, challenges a Black Jack city ordinance that prohibits more than three people from living together in the same house if they are unrelated by blood, marriage or adoption.

Plaintiffs Olivia Shelltrack and Fondray Loving and their children moved from Minnesota to Missouri earlier this year, buying a five-bedroom home in the tiny community outside St. Louis.

Shelltrack and Loving have lived together about 13 years and have two children together, along with a 15-year-old daughter of Shelltrack's from a previous relationship.

Black Jack, a town of about 7,000 that prides itself on a city Web site for its "character and stability," refused to grant the couple and their children an occupancy permit for their home because they do not meet the definition of "family" as set forth by the city, the complaint alleges.

The city has threatened to begin fining the couple as much as $500 a day, said Tony Rothert, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri, which is helping represent the family in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit names the city and several city officials, including city councilmen and the city housing director as defendants.

"The city of Black Jack's behavior is both pompous and unconstitutional," Brenda Jones, executive director of the ACLU of Eastern Missouri, said in a statement. "Black Jack's attempt to criminals people's choice to live together as a family has earned international ridicule for Missouri."

Black Jack city attorney Sheldon Stock said case law backed up the city's stance, which was based on preserving "neighborhood character."

"It all goes to the definition of family," Stock said. "These laws are all over the country. These laws are trying to preserve neighborhood character."

The lawsuit in Missouri comes after a North Carolina judge ruled last month that a 201-year-old law there barring unmarried couples from living together was unconstitutional.