Why a fight over one Florida complex could nix disabled housing statewide

LAKELAND — Olivia Murphy’s parents wanted The Villages at Noah’s Landing to be their daughter’s forever home, the place that would care for her when they no longer could.

Murphy, who was adopted from Russia when she was 3, has difficulties with learning, focus and memory after exposure to alcohol when she was in-utero. The Lakeland apartment complex offered low-rents for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Murphy, now 27, loved her apartment when she moved there in 2019. There was bingo and outdoor games, yoga and craft classes. The complex’s bus would take tenants to the mall, the grocery store and the cinema.

The activities were suspended at the start of the pandemic but the complex continued charging a $235 monthly fee. Many parents stopped paying.

When activities resumed, Noah’s Landing management made it clear they were only for “VIP” tenants, those who paid the fee. The atmosphere at the complex turned bitter over access to activities. Soon, reports were made to police and some residents were threatened with eviction over behavior that was typical for their disability, according to a lawsuit filed in a Tampa federal court in January.

But the dispute has snowballed into something much bigger: a civil rights challenge that threatens not only Noah’s Landing, but other supportive housing complexes across Florida subsidized with millions of state dollars.

Like race, sex and religion, disability is a protected class under the Fair Housing Act. So a housing complex with only disabled residents can be no more legal than one that admits only white tenants, the lawsuit argues.

The outcome could have far-reaching implications. The same model of housing for people with developmental disabilities like autism, Down syndrome and cerebral palsy is used at six complexes across Florida. That includes a Tallahassee apartment complex founded by Democratic State Rep. Allison Tant, which opened last year. More are under construction.

“For years and years, they’ve been building these places and it really does not comply with federal law,” said Matthew Dietz, an attorney and disability rights professor at Nova Southeastern University who is representing four parents in the Noah’s Landing case.

Dietz said the lawsuit is not intended to lead to the closure of the complex but to force it to honor promises to families to provide support and activities that are not conditional on a fee and to integrate the community.

“They didn’t do what they were supposed to do,” he said. “The only way to enforce it was to say this violates the Fair Housing Act — these are people with disabilities and they have rights.”

Apartments at Noah’s Landing resemble student housing. Residents share a living room and kitchen and have their own bathroom connected to their room, which has a lockable door.

At least 80% of the 126-person capacity is required to be occupied by people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. That’s based on a land covenant approved as a condition of the $14 million in tax credits the nonprofit received from the Florida Housing Finance Corp. to offset construction costs.

But the community bills itself as a place for people with disabilities and has not made its low-rent apartments available to non-disabled people, the lawsuit states.

That’s problematic since it leaves tenants segregated and deprived of the benefits of living in an integrated community where they could make friends and have interaction with neurotypical people, said Katherine Hanson, director of advocacy, education and outreach with Disability Rights Florida, a Tallahassee nonprofit.

It also may be a violation of a federal regulation intended to discourage the creation of institution-like settings. Individuals with disabilities who receive services like therapy through Medicaid must live in places that are, as much as possible, integrated into the broader community, federal rules say. Many residents at Noah’s Landing receive Medicaid services.

“Historically, our society has isolated and segregated people with disabilities, including by warehousing them in institutions,” Hanson said in an email. “People with disabilities have the fundamental right to be fully integrated into society.”

Noah’s Ark of Central Florida, the nonprofit that runs the complex, has asked a judge to dismiss the lawsuit, saying no tenants have been denied housing because of their disability. Neurotypical people are, by definition, non-disabled and therefore not part of a protected class, it said. Its CEO, Connie Bamberg, did not return a call seeking comment.

Parents of other children say the dispute is tearing the community apart and fear it will close. Citing financial strains, the nonprofit recently sold The Nest, a group of three houses near downtown Tampa that were home to 14 intellectually disabled people.

Susan Harding’s son, Adam Harding, has lived at Noah’s Landing since it opened in 2016. She thought she would care for her son, who has a developmental delay, for her whole life. That changed when she met a parent whose child was at the complex. He looked her in the eye and told her, “It’s you who’s not ready, not Adam.”

Adam Harding, 34, does not understand money and needs help grocery shopping. But he loves the friends that he’s made, the complex’s swimming pool and the basketball court, Harding said. He can ride his yellow tricycle on the wide pedestrian walkways around the 14-acre complex and helps organize karaoke on Saturdays.

He’s had the same roommate the whole time he’s lived there.

Susan Harding does not support the parents who are suing. The complex is not perfect, she said, but it’s safe and affordable housing for a population that has few options for independent living. Many of its tenants are thriving, she said.

“Families are scared to death things are going to change in a bad way,” Harding said. “My fear is this may lead to unintended consequences of my son not having a home.”

Growing pains

The story of Noah’s Landing began with good intentions.

Five families formed a nonprofit group in 1998 when they tried to picture how their intellectually disabled children would survive after their death. A local church donated money and later land. Volunteers and support groups helped build three homes adapted for people with disabilities. Donations paid for building materials.

Housing for people with disabilities is rare and the homes attracted interest from other parents. So the group dreamed bigger, envisioning a whole community for children like theirs. In 2004, it convinced Gov. Jeb Bush to back a land swap deal between the state and the city of Lakeland that included the donation of a 56-acre site to the nonprofit.

A project as ambitious as Noah’s Landing took the nonprofit into the complex world of tax-credit financed construction, government-backed loans and development partnerships with banks. The nonprofit needed more than enthusiastic parents.

In 2022, the group hired Connie Bamberg, an experienced nonprofit leader, as its CEO at $91,000 a year. The group listed $4.5 million worth of assets and payroll expenses of $436,000 on its tax return that year.

“The people involved had to be more business-minded people to understand those intricacies,” said Harding.

But the transition from a family-run group that cares for their intellectually disabled children has stoked tensions.

The nonprofit abolished its general membership, a group that was enshrined in Noah’s Ark’s bylaws to give parents more say. A group of parents, including Oliva’s mom, sued in 2022 to prevent the change, but were unsuccessful.

More recently, it’s been open warfare.

Olivia’s mother, Maria Murphy, reported Bamberg to Lakeland police accusing her of fabricating allegations against their daughter to have her evicted. An investigation found no wrongdoing.

Bamberg in October filed a petition in a Polk County court for an injunction against Maria Murphy, who she claimed was stalking her online after Murphy reached out to Bamberg’s personal Facebook account and asked for a meeting.

The federal lawsuit has further strained relations.

“Four mean spirited, arrogant and misguided women have me and our charity under constant attack simply because they can,” Bamberg posted on Facebook earlier this month after learning that the parents suing the complex were speaking to the media. “What is wrong with our world that four women could potentially shut down an entity designed to meet the needs of a vulnerable class of amazing human beings and reverse 30+ years of hard work?”

Last week, the parents’ attorney filed a request for an injunction and sanctions against the nonprofit and Bamford. It cites a transcript of an April 4 board meeting in which Bamberg is reported to have said that she plans to “scare the crap out of” the families suing the group.

Fair for all?

Noah’s Landing’s website leaves little doubt that it’s a housing complex for the intellectually disabled. All the apartments have modifications for the disabled such as wall handles for support when using the toilet and countertop microwaves instead of one above the stove. Prospective tenants and their families are interviewed by a committee and quizzed about their disability, whether they receive services and have a support plan in place.

But nonprofit officials struck a different tone when completing a state questionnaire required to house disabled residents who receive home and community-based services like dental care, home health services, life coaching and behavioral health therapy through Medicaid. Such services are rarely approved for residents in an institution-like setting.

“We are simply landlords providing affordable housing,” nonprofit officials wrote in the questionnaire that was included in court records.

The activity fee that sparked the lawsuit is problematic for the complex and potentially for the residents who pay it. Eligibility for Medicaid services is determined by income, with many of the Noah’s Landing’s tenants qualifying because they receive Supplemental Security Income.

The additional $235 monthly fee, which in many cases is being paid for by their families, could be counted as additional income. If reported, the lawsuit states, it would result in a corresponding decrease in benefit payments.

It could mean the tenant earns too much to meet the housing complex’s maximum income threshold.

The Arc Jacksonville and Independence Landing also charge an additional activity fee. Tant, the founder of Independence Landing, did not return a call seeking comment.

One of the goals of the federal lawsuit is to get reimbursement for parents who paid the activity fee for years. The contract the nonprofit signed with Florida Housing states that the nonprofit agrees to provide “all additional residential services and best practices” including community vans, on- and off-site work opportunities, a resident adviser and community based-events.

The nonprofit’s finances suggest it would struggle to survive without the fees. Its 2022 tax return shows an operating deficit of almost $360,000.

Jack Kosik was one of the original five families that founded the nonprofit. His daughter, Brittany Kosik, lives in Noah’s Landing in an apartment close to the clubhouse and loves it there, he said.

He acknowledged there is a conflict between federal rules and what the state allows but said there is a “tsunami of need” for housing for the population that Noah’s Landing serves.

He would like to see it and similar communities enjoy the same legal protection granted to over-55 communities. That was enshrined in a 1995 federal law that created an exemption to the Fair Housing Act for seniors.

“Not allowing individuals with developmental disabilities to live in a community that is designed for them is a form of discrimination against them,” Kosik said “They should have the same choices as you and I have about where they want to live.”