Posted on 02/23/2006 1:53:52 PM PST by Quick1
A Missouri couple say they were denied an occupancy permit for their new home because they're not married.
Olivia Shelltrack and Fondray Loving have been together for 13 years and have three children, ages 8, 10 and 15, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
The couple are appealing the occupancy permit denial from the Black Jack, Mo., board of adjustment, which requires people living together to have blood, marriage or adoption ties. Loving is not the father of Shelltrack's oldest child.
I was basically told, you can have one child living in your house if you're not married, but more than that, you can't, Shelltrack told the newspaper.
This is about the definition of family, not if they're married or not, Mayor Normal McCourt said. It's what cities do to maintain the housing and to hold down overcrowding.
Indeed. Obeying the basic rules of life is for unenlightened squares like me.
The rules are set. You must be married. They weren't.
Tough. Get married.
Where did you see that?
If there is no marriage, there is no commitment.
13 years....
Sounds like a dumb set of rules. Why should the government decide if I want to buy a house with a few friends?
Because the govt. sets the rules on who can live there.
They aren't parents. Parents are married.
A better description might be that marriage has exposed many, many superficial, shallow relationships for the sordid reality of what they actually were in the first place.
Why the hell not? I know a couple that has been together 20 years, and they are better than most married couples. The non-marriage thing isn't for everyone, but for a few couples, it's perfect. Why should the government be deciding for this couple?
What if it didn't work out? They don't want to rush into things. < /sarcasm >
And you consider this to be a good thing?
Over-crowding is one thing. If a government wants to make sure 20 people aren't living in a house, pass such a law. But that isn't the case here. This is government trying to regulate who you can jointly purchase property with.
Then why is it ok to have one child in the home if they aren't married?
If they were in Kansas, they could be married by common law.
I wonder if this town also has a law prohibiting "sex toys."
Uh-huh. The hyperbole doesn't surprise me.
How many kids?
"A better description might be that marriage has exposed many, many superficial, shallow relationships for the sordid reality of what they actually were in the first place."
That sounds about right.
I've read stories of landlords buying a home and then renting it out to 50 unrelated people. That means noisy coming and going all hours of the day and night along with about 30 cars parked in the driveway, yard and up and down the street.
I'd bet you'd want the government to have some kind of ordinance prohibiting this going on in the house next door.
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