Chicago Tribune - October 25, 2005
Josh Noel, jbnoel@tribune.com

The organization, Lambs Farm in Libertyville, said it is following state regulations and looking out for the well-being of residents for whom learning about protecting themselves against HIV would be difficult.

"John Doe," as the 54-year-old man is known in the federal lawsuit, is asking to live in group housing on Lambs Farm's 70-acre campus and to work in the facility's pet store, which he said he did between 2001 and 2004 and in the 1960s and 1970s.

Lambs Farm, a non-profit agency that provides homes and jobs for more than 250 people who are developmentally disabled, was founded in 1961 as a pet store on State Street in downtown Chicago. It moved to Libertyville in 1965.

In addition to working in the store, the man formerly lived in a Lake County apartment Lambs Farm helped him find, said his lawyer, Karen Ward, of Equip for Equality, an advocacy group for people with disabilities.

The man left the state to care for his ill mother. After she died in 2004, he returned to Illinois hoping to live and work at Lambs Farm, Ward said. He was initially welcomed, she said, but was turned away when Lambs Farm officials learned in June that he is HIV positive, a diagnosis made in February. The suit alleges that Lambs Farm based its rejection on "unfounded fears and stereotypes" and says the organization violated the federal rehabilitation, fair housing and disability acts.

With his parents dead and no siblings, the man's only family are Lambs Farm residents, Ward said. He is living in government-subsidized housing in DuPage County, but he's lonely, she said.

Robert Neiman, chairman of the Lambs Farm board, said the man was rejected because of a state Department of Public Health regulation forbidding people with communicable diseases from residing in community living facilities. Lambs Farm also has its own such rule, he said.

Jennifer Williams, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Health, said Lambs Farm appears to have followed the letter of the law, but the rule was crafted to be sure sick people get professional medical care, not to keep them out of group housing. The man is eligible to file a complaint with the health department, she said.

"We don't want to discriminate against folks with HIV," Williams said. "That's not the intent of this. The point is to protect them and get them the care they need."

She said that if he's not sexually active with residents, he's not a risk, but Neiman sees potential problems. Lambs Farm residents and workers would struggle to learn about protecting themselves against HIV because of their disabilities, he said.

"There is a difficulty of conveying a safe-sex message to people who are developmentally disabled," he said. "We believe we have an overriding obligation to the participants of Lambs Farm that would be compromised [by admitting the man]. Unless a court tells us we're wrong, we're going to do what we're required to do."

At least, Ward said, Lambs Farm should have opened an inquiry into the man's ability to practice safe sex and determine whether he would put other residents at risk.

"I don't even know if he has sex, but I know he can be taught to act responsibly," she said. "The assumption that people can't be trained in sexual matters but can in others is ridiculous."

She also said the man's HIV should not prevent him from working in the pet store.

051025
CT051003

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