Judge Rejects Unwed Couple’s Housing Bid

An unwed couple expecting their third child “are creating children for the welfare rolls,” a federal judge said in blocking their request to overturn an agency’s ban on housing unmarried couples.

U.S. District Judge Ronald R. Lagueux also suggested that Dana Dagnese leave the family so that Susan Arsenau and the children could meet the housing authority’s regulation, said Steven Brown of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Rhode Island chapter.

The couple, who have lived together six years, filed a federal lawsuit two weeks ago saying the authority’s decision to deny them emergency housing violated their rights to “freedom of association, family privacy and equal protection of laws.” The couple were seeking a preliminary injunction Tuesday. No trial date has been set.

“Here is a couple in an illicit relationship, who are creating children for the welfare rolls, while others who qualify for housing are shunted aside,” the judge said Tuesday.

“Wouldn’t the court look silly asking the authority to foster these people and allow them to continue an illegal relationship?”

Dagnese, who has been separated from his wife for almost a decade, is awaiting completion of his divorce, Brown said. He and Arsenau have a 3-year-old daughter and a year-old son and are expecting a child in March.