Article By: Hope Williams, Supervising Attorney, Fair Housing Project, Legal Aid of North Carolina
Readers may have heard of the Olmstead case in connection with housing rights for people with disabilities, but they may not know the story behind it, and why it is so important. Olmstead v. L.C., 527 U.S. 581 (1999) was a significant victory for the rights of persons with disabilities.
In 1999, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Olmstead that the unjustified segregation of persons with disabilities is a violation of their civil rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and that public entities must take affirmative steps to integrate persons in the community when appropriate. But perhaps just as important, the Olmstead case demonstrates that two people brave enough to fight for change can have the power to pave the way for countless people to live better lives.
The story of the Olmstead case begins with two women—Lois Curtis and Elaine Wilson. It also begins during dark historical times where the common practice of meeting the needs of persons with developmental and cognitive disabilities was institutionalization in hospitals and other facilities. Once there, individuals with disabilities often had limited opportunities to have control over their lives or interact with the community. It was not uncommon for persons in such facilities to be subjected to mental and physical abuse, and improper treatment interventions, because their needs were misunderstood.
Plaintiffs: Lois Curtis & Elaine Wilson
Lois Curtis experienced the practice of institutionalization firsthand. A Georgia resident, she loved school, but she struggled with issues resulting from her cognitive and developmental disabilities. Her family increasingly was unable to meet her disability-related needs and by the time Lois was eleven years old, she was in and out of hospitals. Soon she was living full-time in an institutional hospital setting.
By her late teens and early twenties, Lois made it known she wanted to live in the community, and not in the hospital. She encountered Susan Jamieson, an attorney at Atlanta Legal Aid Society, who worked to help Lois get a placement in a personal care home. Unfortunately, the home lacked sufficient support services necessary for her care and she returned to the hospital. Lois found herself in a conundrum—both she and her doctors believed she could live outside the hospital setting, but there were no options for her to get the level of support she needed to live more independently in the community.
Elaine Wilson also had cognitive disabilities and other mental health conditions and had also sought release from the same institution in Georgia where Lois lived. Like Lois, she had been institutionalized as a teenager because her family was unable to care for her due to her disability-related needs. Also, like Lois, she found herself in and out of the hospital and personal care homes. The personal care homes did not provide the level of care she needed, but she did not need to be confined to a hospital.
The Olmstead Lawsuit
In 1995, Lois, represented by Atlanta Legal Aid Society, filed a federal lawsuit against the State of Georgia, alleging discrimination under ADA. Tommy Olmstead was the commissioner of the George Department of Human Resources at the time. Elaine joined Lois Curtis as a plaintiff in her suit against the state of Georgia.
The Plaintiffs alleged that under the American with Disabilities Act and the Fourteenth Amendment, they were entitled to an order requiring the State of Georgia to provide them care in the “most integrated setting appropriate,” which was a community-based treatment program rather than a state mental hospital. They argued that individuals with a disability could not be forced to live in an institutional setting if they could be cared for in a more integrated environment in the community.
In 1997, the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Georgia found in favor of the Plaintiffs and ruled that the state’s failure to place them in appropriate community-based treatment program violated the ADA. The state of Georgia appealed the decision, citing insufficient funds to care for disabled individuals in more integrated settings.
A year later, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s decision. Once again, the state of Georgia appealed the case, this time to the United States Supreme Court.
In 1999, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Curtis and Wilson. In its decision, authored by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Supreme Court ruled that the State of Georgia had to offer Lois and Elaine a different option than life in a hospital facility. The Court held that unjustified segregation of people with disabilities constitutes discrimination in violation of the American with Disabilities Act.
The Olmstead decision called for state and local governments to develop more services and opportunities for disabled individuals and to provide these services “in the most integrated setting appropriate to the needs of qualified individuals with disabilities.”
After Olmstead
After the Olmstead ruling, Lois was able to live in an apartment with support systems including a professional aide. She was a visual artist and exhibited her work in several galleries in Georgia. On June 20, 2011, Lois presented one of her self-portraits to President Barack Obama in the Oval Office. Until shortly before her death in November 2022, Lois was a public speaker and traveled across the country, telling audiences about her life and work as well as selling her art. Lois also took up singing and song-writing. She enjoyed traveling, spending time with friends, and attending church, among many other interests.
Although Elaine’s path to independent living had a few more twists and turns than Lois’s, Elaine eventually rejoined the community, where she happily remained until passing away in December of 2004.
While significant strides have been made to improve community-based housing opportunities for persons with disabilities, the promise of Olmstead remains unfulfilled.
The staff at Legal Aid of North Carolina’s Fair Housing Project and our colleagues throughout the state work diligently to help persons with disabilities assert their rights under the Fair Housing Act (FHA) and access and remain in housing in the community. The FHA affords powerful protections for persons with disabilities against discrimination in housing, including the requirement that landlords grant reasonable accommodations and modifications when appropriate.
The North Carolina Fair Housing Project conducts trainings in partnership with the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency about the fair housing rights of persons with disabilities during the Fall and Spring. Be on the lookout for information about registering for these training courses in early 2024 at the events page of NC Housing Finance Agency (https://www.nchfa.com/events). You can also find information on our website at https://www.fairhousingnc.org/events/.
Source Material:
- Olmstead Rights (last visited November 15, 2023), History, About Olmstead, https://www.olmsteadrights.org/iamolmstead/history/ and https://www.olmsteadrights.org/about-olmstead/
- Women’s History Museum (last visited November 15, 2023), https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/lois-curtis
- Olmstead: Community Integration for Everyone — About Us (last visited November 15, 2023), https://archive.ada.gov/olmstead/olmstead_about.htm
- The Art of Autism, The Art Of Autism Mourns The Passing Of Lois Curtis: Artist And Disability Advocate (last visited November 15, 2023), https://the-art-of-autism.com/disability-history-month-lois-curtis-artist-and-disability-advocate-paved-the-way/
More from this Newsletter Issue: December 2023
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