Chicago Hts. sued by U.S. over housing

In the first suit alleging housing discrimination against the handicapped, the federal government sued Chicago Heights on Tuesday for refusing to allow a home for the mentally retarded to be built there.

The suit, charging violation of the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988, seeks to keep the south suburb from interfering with construction of the home, which was to have been built at Broadway and Carpenter.

Filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago, the suit seeks unspecified damages and asks that the city also be ordered to pay civil penalties.

The Chicago Heights City Council unanimously rejected the project May 1 after hearings at which residents of the area overwhelmingly opposed the project.

Officials of Chicago Heights and the developer, Residential Facilities Management Specialists Inc. of Galesburg, could not be reached for comment.

In a suit under the new law alleging discrimination on the basis of familial status, a U.S. District Court in April ordered an Oak Forest landlord to rent an apartment to a family with four teens and assessed the landlord $33,000 in damages