Published January, 1996

Hill v. Cmty. of Damien of Molokai, 911 P.2d 861 (N.M. 1996)

Applying the four-prong impact analysis outlined in Metropolitan Housing Development Corp. v. Village of Arlington Heights, 558 F.2d 1283 (7th Cir. 1977), the New Mexico Supreme Court found that a group home for people with AIDS conformed with a restrictive covenant, in part because the home was designed to provide a traditional family structure. The court further concluded that even if operation of the group home violated the restrictive covenant, enforcing the covenant against the home would violate the Fair Housing Act, both by disparately impacting the handicapped by excluding group homes, and through refusal to make a reasonable accommodation.

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