A.Â
The purposes of this Chapter are:
1.Â
To secure for all individuals within the City freedom from any discriminatory practice made unlawful by Article II of this Chapter.
2.Â
To implement within the City the
policies embodied in Missouri and Federal human rights legislation
and to promote cooperation between the City and the State and Federal
agencies enforcing that legislation.
For the purposes of this Chapter,
the following terms shall be deemed to have the meanings indicated
below:
As it relates to the adverse decision or action, the protected
criterion which was the motivating factor.
The Missouri Commission on Human Rights.
A person who has filed a complaint with the Commission alleging
that another person has engaged in a prohibited discriminatory practice.
A physical or mental impairment which substantially limits
one (1) or more of a person's major life activities, being regarded
as having such an impairment, or a record of having such an impairment,
which with or without reasonable accommodation does not interfere
with performing the job, utilizing the place of public accommodation,
or occupying the dwelling in question. For purposes of this Chapter,
the term "disability" does not include current, illegal use of or
addiction to a controlled substance as such term is defined by Section
195.010, RSMo.; however, a person may be considered to have a disability
if that person:
Has successfully completed a supervised
drug rehabilitation program and is no longer engaging in the illegal
use of, and is not currently addicted to, a controlled substance or
has otherwise been rehabilitated successfully and is no longer engaging
in such use and is not currently addicted;
Is participating in a supervised
rehabilitation program and is no longer engaging in illegal use of
controlled substances; or
Is erroneously regarded as currently
illegally using, or being addicted to, a controlled substance.
Conduct proscribed herein, taken because of race, color,
religion, national origin, ancestry, sex, or age as it relates to
employment, disability or familial status as it relates to housing.
Any building, structure or portion thereof which is occupied
as, or designed or intended for occupancy as, a residence by one (1)
or more families, and any vacant land which is offered for sale or
lease for the construction or location thereon of any such building,
structure or portion thereof.
One (1) or more individuals who have
not attained the age of eighteen (18) years being domiciled with:
The protection afforded against discrimination because of familial
status shall apply to any person who is pregnant or is in the process
of securing legal custody of any individual who has not attained the
age of eighteen (18) years.
Housing:
Provided under any State or Federal
program that the Commission determines is specifically designed and
operated to assist elderly persons, as defined in the State or Federal
program;
Intended for, and solely occupied
by, persons sixty-two (62) years of age or older; or
Intended and operated for occupancy
by at least one (1) person fifty-five (55) years of age or older per
unit.
Housing qualifies as housing for
older persons under this Chapter if:
The housing has significant facilities
and services specifically designed to meet the physical or social
needs of older persons, or if the provision of such facilities and
services is not practicable, that such housing is necessary to provide
important housing opportunities for older persons; and
At least eighty percent (80%) of
the units are occupied by at least one (1) person fifty-five (55)
years of age or older per unit; and
The owner or manager of the housing
has published and adhered to policies and procedures which demonstrate
an intent by said owner or manager to provide housing for persons
fifty-five (55) years of age or older.
Includes one (1) or more individuals, corporations, partnerships,
associations, organizations, labor organizations, legal representatives,
mutual companies, joint-stock companies, trusts, trustees, trustees
in bankruptcy, receivers, fiduciaries or other organized groups of
persons.
All places or businesses offering or holding out to the general
public goods, services, privileges, facilities, advantages or accommodations
for the peace, comfort, health, welfare and safety of the general
public or such public places providing food, shelter, recreation and
amusement, including, but not limited to:
Any inn, hotel, motel or other establishment
which provides lodging to transient guests, other than an establishment
located within a building which contains not more than five (5) rooms
for rent or hire and which is actually occupied by the proprietor
of such establishment as his/her residence;
Any restaurant, cafeteria, lunchroom,
lunch counter, soda fountain or other facility principally engaged
in selling food for consumption on the premises, including, but not
limited to, any such facility located on the premises of any retail
establishment;
Any gasoline station, including all
facilities located on the premises of such gasoline station and made
available to the patrons thereof;
Any motion-picture house, theater,
concert hall, sports arena, stadium or other place of exhibition or
entertainment;
Any public facility owned, operated
or managed by or on behalf of this State or any agency or subdivision
thereof, or any public corporation; and any such facility supported
in whole or in part by public funds;
Any establishment which is physically
located within the premises of any establishment otherwise covered
by this Section or within the premises of which is physically located
any such covered establishment, and which holds itself out as serving
patrons of such covered establishment.
Includes to lease, to sublease, to let and otherwise to grant
for consideration the right to occupy premises not owned by the occupant.
A person who is alleged to have engaged in a prohibited discriminatory
practice in a complaint filed with the Commission.
Any act that is unlawful under this Chapter.
A.Â
It shall be an unlawful housing practice:
1.Â
To refuse to sell or rent after the
making of a bona fide offer, to refuse to negotiate for the sale or
rental of, to deny or otherwise make unavailable a dwelling to any
person because of race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry,
sex, disability or familial status.
2.Â
To discriminate against any person
in the terms, conditions or privileges of sale or rental of a dwelling,
or in the provision of services or facilities in connection therewith,
because of race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sex,
disability or familial status.
3.Â
To make, print or publish or cause to be made, printed or published
any notice, statement or advertisement with respect to the sale or
rental of a dwelling that indicates any preference, limitation or
discrimination because of race, color, religion, national origin,
ancestry, sex, disability or familial status, or an intention to make
any such preference, limitation or discrimination.
4.Â
To represent to any person because
of race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sex, disability
or familial status that any dwelling is not available for inspection,
sale or rental when such dwelling is in fact so available.
5.Â
To induce or attempt to induce any person to sell or rent any
dwelling by representations regarding the entry or prospective entry
into the neighborhood of a person or persons because of a particular
race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sex, disability
or familial status.
6.Â
To discriminate in the sale or rental,
or to otherwise make unavailable or deny, a dwelling to any buyer
or renter because of a disability of:
7.Â
To discriminate against any person
in the terms, conditions or privileges of sale or rental of a dwelling,
or in the provision of services or facilities in connection with such
dwelling, because of a disability of:
B.Â
1.Â
A refusal to permit, at the expense
of the person with the disability, reasonable modifications of existing
premises occupied or to be occupied by such person if such modifications
may be necessary to afford such person full enjoyment of the premises,
except that, in the case of a rental, the landlord may, where it is
reasonable to do so, condition permission for a modification on the
renter's agreeing to restore the interior of the premises to the condition
that existed before the modification, reasonable wear and tear excepted;
2.Â
A refusal to make reasonable accommodations
in rules, policies, practices or services when such accommodations
may be necessary to afford such person equal opportunity to use and
enjoy a dwelling; or
3.Â
In connection with the design and
construction of covered multifamily dwellings for first occupancy
after March 13, 1991, a failure to design and construct those dwellings
in such a manner that:
a.Â
The public use and common use portions
of such dwellings are readily accessible to and usable by persons
with a disability;
b.Â
All the doors designed to allow passage
into and within all premises within such dwellings are sufficiently
wide to allow passage by persons with a disability in wheelchairs;
and
c.Â
All premises within such dwellings
contain the following features of adaptive design:
(1)Â
An accessible route
into and through the dwelling;
(2)Â
Light switches, electrical
outlets, thermostats and other environmental controls in accessible
locations;
(3)Â
Reinforcements in bathroom
walls to allow later installation of grab bars; and
(4)Â
Usable kitchens and
bathrooms such that an individual in a wheelchair can maneuver about
the space.
It shall be unlawful for any bank,
building and loan association, insurance company or other corporation,
association, firm or enterprise whose business consists in whole or
in part in the making of commercial real estate loans to deny a loan
or other financial assistance because of race, color, religion, national
origin, ancestry, sex, disability or familial status to a person applying
therefor for the purpose of purchasing, construction, improving, repairing
or maintaining a dwelling, or to discriminate against him/her in fixing
of the amount, interest rate, duration or other terms or conditions
of such loan or other financial assistance because of the race, color,
religion, national origin, ancestry, sex, disability or familial status
of such person or of any person associated with him/her in connection
with such loan or other financial assistance, or of the present or
prospective owners, lessees, tenants or occupants of the dwellings
in relation to which such loan or other financial assistance is to
be made or given.
It shall be unlawful to deny any person access to or membership
or participation in any multiple listing service, real estate brokers'
organization or other service organization or facility relating to
the business of selling or renting dwellings because of race, color,
religion, national origin, ancestry, sex, disability or familial status.
A.Â
All persons within the City of Mount Vernon
are free and equal and shall be entitled to the full and equal use
and enjoyment within this State of any place of public accommodation,
as hereinafter defined, without discrimination or segregation because
of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, ancestry or disability.
B.Â
It is an unlawful discriminatory practice for any person, directly or indirectly, to refuse, withhold from or deny any other person or to attempt to refuse, withhold from or deny any other person any of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, services or privileges made available in any place of public accommodation, as defined in Section 220.020 and this Section, or to segregate or discriminate against any such person in the use thereof because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, ancestry or disability.
C.Â
The provisions of this Section shall not apply to a private club, a place of accommodation owned by or operated on behalf of a religious corporation, association or society or other establishment which is not in fact open to the public, unless the facilities of such establishments are made available to the customers or patrons of a place of public accommodation as defined in Section 220.020 and this Section.
A.Â
It shall be an unlawful discriminatory
practice:
1.Â
To aid, abet, incite, compel or coerce
the commission of acts prohibited under this Chapter or to attempt
to do so;
2.Â
To retaliate or discriminate in any
manner against any other person because such person has opposed any
practice prohibited by this Chapter or because such person has filed
a complaint, testified, assisted or participated in any manner in
any investigation, proceeding or hearing conducted pursuant to this
Chapter;
3.Â
For the City to discriminate on the
basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, ancestry, age
as it relates to employment, disability or familial status as it relates
to housing; or
4.Â
To discriminate in any manner against
any other person because of such person's association with any person
protected by this Chapter.
A.Â
Nothing in this Chapter shall be construed
to invalidate or limit any law of the State or of the City that requires
dwellings to be designed and constructed in a manner that affords
persons with disabilities greater access than is required by this
Chapter.
B.Â
1.Â
Requires that a dwelling be made
available to an individual whose tenancy would constitute a direct
threat to the health or safety of other individuals or whose tenancy
would result in substantial physical damage to the property of others.
2.Â
Limits the applicability of any reasonable
local restriction regarding the maximum number of occupants permitted
to occupy a dwelling, nor does any provision of said Sections regarding
familial status apply with respect to housing for older persons.
3.Â
Shall prohibit conduct against a
person because such person has been convicted by any court of competent
jurisdiction of the illegal manufacture or distribution of a controlled
substance as defined by Section 195.010, RSMo.
C.Â
Nothing in this Chapter shall prohibit
a religious organization, association or society or any non-profit
institution or organization operated, supervised or controlled by
or in conjunction with a religious organization, association or society
from limiting the sale, rental or occupancy of dwellings which it
owns or operates for other than a commercial purpose to persons of
the same religion or from giving preference to such persons, unless
membership in such religion is restricted on account of race, color
or national origin. Nor shall anything in this Chapter prohibit a
private club not in fact open to the public, which as an incident
to its primary purpose or purposes provides lodging which it owns
or operates for other than a commercial purpose, from limiting the
rental or occupancy of such lodging to its members or from giving
preference to its members.
D.Â
Nothing in this Chapter, other than the prohibitions against discriminatory advertising in Subsection (A)(3) of Section 220.030, shall apply to:
1.Â
The sale or rental of any single-family
house by a private individual owner, provided the following conditions
are met:
a.Â
The private individual owner does
not own or have any interest in more than three (3) single-family
houses at any one time; and
b.Â
The house is sold or rented without
the use of a real estate broker, agent or salesperson or the facilities
of any person in the business of selling or renting dwellings and
without publication, posting or mailing of any advertisement. If the
owner selling the house does not reside in it at the time of the sale
or was not the most recent resident of the house prior to such sale,
the exemption in this Section applies to only one (1) such sale in
any twenty-four-month period; or
2.Â
Rooms or units in dwellings containing
living quarters occupied or intended to be occupied by no more than
four (4) families living independently of each other, if the owner
actually maintains and occupies one (1) of such living quarters as
his/her residence.