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Manassas [VA] Changes Definition Of Family
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| Contributor | RP |
| Last Edited | RP Dec 28, 2005 07:17pm |
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| Category | Rule Change |
| Media | Newspaper - Washington Post |
| News Date | Thursday, December 29, 2005 01:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | There had been a complaint, he said. The city needed to know not just how many people lived there but how they were related. He handed Leyla Chavez a form and explained that she could be prosecuted for lying.
"Okay," she said and, in a mild state of shock, began filling it out.
There was Chavez and her husband. Their two sons. A nephew. The man who rented downstairs. His girlfriend.
"Your nephew, under our law, is considered unrelated," Purchase said, then delivered the verdict: Two people had to go.
That is because a zoning ordinance adopted this month by the city of Manassas redefines family, essentially restricting households to immediate relatives, even when the total is below the occupancy limit.
The rule, which has alarmed civil libertarians and housing activists, is among a series of attempts by municipalities across the nation to use zoning powers to deal with problems they associate with immigrants, often illegal, who have settled in suburbs, typically in shared housing to help with the rent or mortgage. |
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