ACLJ Demands That Senior Living Complex Stop Banning Residents From Sharing Bible Tracts After Complex Calls the Tracts “Garbage”

A senior living center has banned our client from sharing Bible tracts with fellow residents, calling the tracts “garbage.” We just sent a demand letter to defend her rights.

The ACLJ has won a series of recent cases on behalf of clients in senior living facilities across the country who are being targeted for living out their faith (in Texas, Missouri, Colorado, and Minnesota, just to name a few recent examples). We are seeing a trend of religious discrimination in senior living facilities, but we have also consistently been winning victories to push back on those trends on behalf of those religious tenants across the country. This time, we sent a demand letter on behalf of a Pennsylvania resident who was ordered not to distribute her religious tracts in her senior living facility’s common area.

Our client has made a practice of handing out religious tracts and sharing her sincerely held Christian faith in every residence where she has lived. She has lived in this facility since 2017 and previously distributed her materials without incident. But during two recent incidents at her facility, a leasing agent told her that she could not put tracts out because they were religious materials. In one incident, the leasing agent specifically told our client, “You cannot have this garbage out.”

After both incidents, she later received permission from building management to resume placing out the tracts. There were no complaints from any of the residents concerning her use of the tracts; in fact, residents told the activities director that they enjoyed them and even requested that she keep ordering them. Some residents are limited in their ability to attend religious services, and her tracts have significantly benefited their religious activity. In the past, other residents have likewise been able to place religious materials on the community table.

Then several weeks ago, on May 2, our client returned from a medical appointment and was told by a receptionist that management was forbidding her from placing her tracts on the community table. These tracts were in a common area where pamphlets, flyers, business cards, and other personal materials had been available. She was specifically told that management was prohibiting her religious materials in order to try to be more “inclusive.” The irony of excluding religious belief out of a desire to be more inclusive seems to have been lost on the building’s management.

The Fair Housing Act (FHA) prohibits apartment complexes and senior living centers alike from treating religious activities differently from secular activities, such as prohibiting the use of common rooms for religious events or activities where non-religious events or activities are permitted. The FHA is clear. It requires that residents be treated equally without regard to their particular religion. Singling out religious actions for disparate treatment is the sine qua non of discrimination. By banning religious materials from a common area, the senior living facility is in violation of the FHA. The FHA’s protections are not left on the doorstep when residents enter their homes. We sent a demand letter to the complex, demanding that action be taken to correct this discriminatory policy.

The response to our letter is due today. Should the situation not be properly resolved, we are prepared to take further legal action on behalf of our client. Religious discrimination in the terms and conditions of the provision of a living facility is a violation of the FHA. The ACLJ fights to provide legal assistance for Americans nationwide who experience violations of their protected religious liberty.

This issue has become so prevalent that we have provided a legal memo that residents can download and show to senior center management to help address these issues. And we stand ready to assist should such discrimination persist. Reach out to us at ACLJ.org/HELP.