Richland couple claim housing discrimination

By Michelle Dupler, Herald staff writer

RICHLAND -- Michelle DeShane is crying when she walks out of a back room at the Richland Housing Authority, slamming the door behind her.

She runs outside and leans against her green Suzuki Sidekick with her head in her hands, fists clenched.

A moment later, she meekly asks if someone can get the keys she left behind. She can't bring herself to step inside that room again.

She just needs to get away from there, even though it means leaving her partner, Mitch Cain, alone to face termination of his housing voucher.

What had DeShane angry to the point of tears -- and what prompted the couple to file a pending complaint with the state Human Rights Commission -- was being told they didn't meet the Richland Housing Authority's definition of a family even though they've been registered as same-sex domestic partners since August 2008.

Cain hasn't always been named Mitch. He was born intersexed, meaning he had characteristics of both genders.

Legally, he's known as Michelle Lyn Cain until he can pay a fee to have the gender on his birth certificate changed, and being female always felt wrong to him. The housing authority considers DeShane and Cain a lesbian couple.

DeShane applied to be added to Cain's housing voucher, which pays a portion of the rent, so the two could live together, but was denied because they are not related by blood or could prove they've been together for one year.

The federal regulation DeShane's application was denied under defines a family as: "Two or more persons who intend to share residency whose income and resources are available to meet the family's needs and who have a history (minimum of one year) as a family unit or show evidence of a stable family relationship or related by blood or marriage."

Christine Mitma, an advocate for the Northwest Fair Housing Alliance, attended Cain's hearing by telephone and wrote a letter challenging the housing authority's interpretation of the regulation.

Mitma argued DeShane and Cain's state-certified domestic partnership was evidence of a stable family relationship, and that the word "or" in the regulation means the one-year period doesn't apply.

A law passed in the 2009 legislative session and signed by Gov. Chris Gregoire proposed to extend all of the legal rights and benefits of marriage to the more than 5,500 couples registered as domestic partners.

But that law won't be implemented until after voters get a chance to weigh in. Foes of the "everything but marriage" bill have filed a referendum to block the law and are collecting signatures to place the referendum on the November ballot.

Al Watson, the housing authority's executive director, said the agency doesn't treat same-sex domestic partners differently than heterosexual married couples.

"We wouldn't do that," Watson said. "HUD gives us thick books of regulations to carry out the programs that we do. The housing authority creates another book of regulations. We try to adhere to those regulations as closely as possible so there is no possibility of making a tainted decision."

But he said his two case workers are overloaded with about 300 clients each from the various programs the agency administers. There are 430 families just in the Housing Choice voucher program.

"We're not perfect," he said. "The regulations are open to interpretation. They're difficult to read. Sometimes I have to get a definition straight from HUD."

But DeShane and Cain say housing authority staff members have discriminated against them. They claim they've been yelled at in the lobby, and that one staffer compared Cain to an "alien or Martian."

"I think the trouble is because we're gay, my partner is a transsexual and I'm a lesbian," DeShane said.

But the housing authority officials say Cain lost the voucher that helped pay his rent because he broke the rules -- didn't properly report income and had DeShane as an unauthorized guest. They want him to repay nearly $2,800 in rent subsidies.

A hearings officer found against Cain when he disputed the allegations at that meeting at the housing authority two weeks ago. The denial was based in part on Cain and DeShane's complaint to the Human Rights Commission, which stated they live together as domestic partners.

The couple say that was an error and is being corrected.

Cain said in some ways the denial was a blessing. Both he and DeShane are disabled from workplace injuries, and DeShane is scheduled for back surgery later this month.

Cain was a nursing assistant injured when a patient fell on him. DeShane was a substitute teacher and truck driver injured when a door slammed on her.

Losing the housing voucher means Cain now has to find a way to pay his $625 monthly rent on a limited income, as well as repay the housing authority. But it also means DeShane can live with him after her surgery.

And once Cain's transition is finished, the two plan to get married as a man and woman. They believe if they'd been man and wife all along instead of domestic partners, there wouldn't have been a problem.

"I got a peace about it," Cain said. "I just want other people to know what they're doing."

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Sunday, Jun. 14, 2009

Richland couple claim housing discrimination

By Michelle Dupler, Herald staff writer