I was presented with an interesting question today. An attorney friend called me with the following fact pattern:
A private attorney represents a landlord who owns an apartment building where many of the tenants have disabilities. Some of the tenants have live-in attendants and the landlord has no problem with this. One tenant in particular has a live-in PCA who recently married. The spouse of the live-in PCA moves into the tenant’s apartment and also gets certified as a PCA. The tenant with a disability now shares his apartment with a husband and wife, both of whom are PCAs. The landlord is not pleased with this situation and is considering bringing eviction proceedings against the tenant. The landlord’s attorney is seeking policy arguments that could bolster her client’s case in front of a judge.
I understand the landlord’s frustration at having another person sharing this apartment without being on the lease. And living with a husband-wife team of caregivers could create some awkward issues of dependency for the tenant. But from a policy perspective, there don’t seem to be many compelling arguments that could help the landlord. It’s one thing if the tenant is violating the letter of the lease. But the state doesn’t really care whether an individual lives with one PCA or four, as long as services are properly billed. It really isn’t within the jurisdiction of a court to determine whether this living situation is unhealthy or creating a bad precedent. To do so would smack of paternalism and there’s no shortage of that in the lives of most people with disabilities. While a policy argument might assuage this landlord’s feelings of discomfort about possibly evicting a tenant, I don’t think one is readily available.
