Media Advisory - Legal action against zoning by-laws

TORONTO, Feb. 19 /CNW/ - In towns and cities all across Ontario, people living with disabilities are targeted by zoning restrictions that limit their ability to find housing with support services. In the case of one municipality, zoning by-laws allow no more then 36 "mentally handicapped" people to be housed in group homes within the entire municipality. The by-laws are supposed to regulate land use, yet people with disabilities are shut out by zoning laws that explicitly limit the number of people needing support services from living in residential neighbourhoods.

On Tuesday, February 23 at 11:00am, The Human Rights Legal Support Centre will launch human rights applications against four municipalities (Toronto, Sarnia, Smiths Falls and Kitchener) on behalf of individuals living with disabilities. Urban planner John Gladki and Peggy Birnberg of the "YIMBY" (Yes in my back yard) Homecoming Coalition will join the applicants. The ARCH Disability Law Centre is representing a group of people with intellectual disabilities who will be asking to intervene in these applications.

    
    Who:   Disabled Ontarians take on discriminatory zoning by-laws

    What:  Filing human rights applications at the Human Rights Tribunal of
           Ontario

    When:  Tuesday, February 23, 11:00am

    Where: Human Rights Legal Support Centre
           180 Dundas Street West, 7th Floor
           (2 blocks east of University Avenue/St. Patrick Subway station)
    

For further information: or to arrange interviews: Jennifer Ramsay, Human Rights Legal Support Centre, [phone], mobile: [phone]