On July 27th, 2016, a 68-year-old woman who identifies as lesbian brought a civil right action under the Fair Housing Act and the Illinois Human Rights Act. The action was brought in the Northern District Court of Illinois. The plaintiff sought declaratory, injunctive, and compensatory and punitive damages against Defendants Glen St. Andrew Living Community (GSALC) and their administrators.

Plaintiff alleged that, throughout her time at GSALC, she was subjected to a pattern of discrimination and harassment because of her sex and sexual orientation, including persistent verbal harassment, threats, intimidation, and three separate assaults, at the hands of other residents. She alleged that she was called countless homophobic slurs, taunted about her relationship with partner and their child, threatened with bodily harm, bullied and intimidated in all of the communal spaces in the facility, and physically injured by other residents. She further alleged that, although she repeatedly complained about the sex- and sexual orientation-based harassment to GSALC staff, they gave no response. Instead, it was alleged that staff marginalized and alienated Marsha and retaliated against her for complaining about the harassment.

The defendants moved to dismiss the case on Aug. 22, 2016, which the court granted on Jan. 18, 2017. The court held that the plaintiff failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted because she did not allege a motive or intent to discriminate on the part of the defendants, that GSALC housing was discriminatory by being uninhabitable, or that the defendants acted because of her sexual orientation or gender.

The plaintiff appealed to the Seventh Circuit, which remanded the case to the District court based on a more expansive reading of the Fair Housing Act, holding that liability exists under the FHA when a landlord receives notice of tenant-on-tenant harassment based on a protected status, but does not take any reasonable steps to stop that harassment. The court applied the Title IX standard of deliberate indifference to the application of the FHA.

Plaintiff filed an amended complaint on October 31, 2018 reiterating the allegations of her initial complaint and basing her legal conclusions on the standard promulgated by the Seventh Circuit. However, on March 4, 2019, the two parties filed to jointly stipulate to the dismissal of the lawsuit with prejudice, having reached an independent settlement agreement.

After the Seventh Circuit decision, Defendant had petitioned to the Supreme Court, but the petition was dismissed pursuant to the two parties’ settlement agreement.

Sihang Zhang - 01/04/2017
Virginia Weeks - 02/22/2018
Dan Toubman - 04/05/2020


compress summary