Allegheny County Council's proposal to require group homes to register with the county before accepting residents is not only cumbersome for mental health and addiction rehabilitation providers, but it's illegal, according to a network of disability advocates.

The Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania and Achieva, a nonprofit agency that provides comprehensive services and support for the disabled, contend that council's proposed legislation, the Group Home Registration Program, violates the Fair Housing Act's prohibition of discrimination based on disability.

Under the protections of the Fair Housing Act, "it is unlawful to make unavailable or to deny a dwelling to any buyer or renter based on the disability of a person residing in or intending to reside in a dwelling," Shari Mamas, a staff attorney for the Disability Rights Network, told council members in a letter asking them to reconsider the group homes bill.

Council introduced the bill early this month.

Among other stipulations, it requires group home operators to seek written certification from municipal officials, showing that the homes comply with local ordinances. Facilities that fail to do so under the registration program would have to file plans of corrective action and make needed changes within 90 days.

But in the letter to council members who sponsored the bill, Ms. Mamas said it "will impose burdens on the creation and operation of homes for people with disabilities that are generally inapplicable to similar-sized groups of unrelated, non-disabled persons without any legitimate justification."

What is more, she added, the courts have long established that municipal ordinances that impose requirements on group homes violate the Fair Housing Act.

The letter was co-signed by Marsha Blanco, executive director of Achieva, and Nancy J. Murray, president of The Arc of Greater Pittsburgh.

But Councilman Jim Burn, D-Millvale, chairman of council's Public Safety Committee and a key sponsor of the group home registration bill, said he has no plans to pull back on the ordinance, notwithstanding the letter.

"They are overreacting to an ordinance which is trying to deal with a broken system," said Mr. Burn, who initially introduced the bill with Councilman Charles Martoni, D-Swissvale.

The group home registration ordinance, if adopted, would apply to any unlocked dwelling that houses three or more unrelated people and is designed to provide supervised living for abused or neglected youths or people recovering from addiction, with developmental disabilities, behavioral or emotional problems, or criminal records.

Mr. Burn, a former mayor in Millvale, said he took up the issue and proposed hearings in his Public Safety Committee because of the continuous complaints he received from people in municipalities all across the county.

The bill will be part of the discussion next Wednesday, he added, when local police chiefs who accept his invitation talk with his committee about housing problems like slumlords.