HUD Charges Grapevine, Texas Housing Authority with Disability Discrimination

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has charged the Grapevine Housing Authority (“GHA”); Jane Everett, Executive Director of GHA; and Bonnie McHugh, Vice-Chair of the GHA Housing Commission, with discriminating against, and failure to provide a reasonable accommodation for a tenant with a disability. Read the charge.

The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination based on disability. This includes prohibiting housing providers from making housing unavailable to persons based on disability. The Act also requires housing providers to make reasonable accommodation when necessary for persons with disabilities to have an equal opportunity to use and enjoy their homes.

Grapevine is located in northeast Tarrant County in the Mid-Cities suburban region between Dallas and Fort Worth and includes a larger portion of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport than other cities. The population was 50,631 (2020).

HUD’s Charge of Discrimination alleges that the Grapevine Housing Authority, Ms. Everett, and Ms. McHugh terminated the lease of a tenant with diabetes following a medical episode caused by his blood sugar levels. They subsequently denied his reasonable accommodation request and continued eviction proceedings against him even after his doctor had provided evidence that his symptoms were managed following a change in medication and purchase of a medical alert bracelet.

A US Administrative Law Judge will hear HUD’s charge unless any party to the charge elects to have the case heard in federal district court. If a judge finds, after a hearing, that discrimination has occurred, they may award damages to the complainant for his losses as a result of the discrimination. The judge may also order injunctive relief and other equitable relief, to deter further discrimination, as well as payment of attorney fees. In addition, the judge may impose civil penalties to vindicate the public interest. If the federal court hears the case, the judge may also award punitive damages to the complainant.

People who believe they are the victims of housing discrimination should contact HUD at (800) 669-9777 (voice) or (800) 927-9275 (TTY) or file a complaint here: www.hud.gov/fairhousing/fileacomplaint.

Housing providers and others can learn more about their responsibility to provide reasonable accommodations and reasonable modifications for individuals with disabilities here. More information is available at www.hud.gov/fairhousing.

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Read the March 25, 2024 HUD release.

Free Forum on "Employment: Disability, Reasonable Accommodations and the Law"

MCCR Forum: Employment: Disability, Reasonable Accommodations and the Law

Maryland Commission on Civil Rights sent this bulletin at 10/17/2023 09:10 AM EDT

Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page. Join us at our virtual forum that covers a review of applicable disability-related laws and reasonable accommodations. The training also provides relevant statistics and discusses appropriate etiquette, behavior and language when interacting with persons with disabilities. To register, click on the picture above or click HERE. Victim of Discrimination? Training & Partnerships HOME      ABOUT MCCR      SERVICES      PUBLICATIONS      EVENTS      PRESS      CONTACT US

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HUD Charges New York Landlord with Disability Discrimination

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has charged Lakeview Avenue, LLC (“Lakeview”) in Rensselaer, New York, and its employees with violating the Fair Housing Act by refusing a tenant’s request for a disability-related reasonable accommodation to keep an assistance animal and subjecting the tenant to retaliation for requesting a reasonable accommodation. Read the Charge.

The Fair Housing Act legally outlaws discrimination and retaliation based on disability, including the failing to grant reasonable accommodations and interfering with tenants' rights protected by the Act.

HUD’s charge alleges that Lakeview refused a tenant’s request to allow her disabled child to have an assistance animal in her unit. Though they provided medical documentation documenting the child’s need for the animal, Lakeview still denied the reasonable accommodation and impose onerous and discriminatory conditions. After another request for a reasonable accommodation, the tenant received a notice to vacate her unit and had to move to another, more expensive, apartment within her daughter’s school district

A U. S. Administrative Law Judge will hear HUD’s charge unless any party to the charge elects to have the case heard in federal district court. If an administrative law judge finds, after a hearing, that discrimination has occurred, they may award damages to the individuals for their losses as a result of the discrimination, injunctive relief and other equitable relief to deter further discrimination, payment of attorney fees, and civil penalties. If the federal court hears the case, the judge may also award punitive damages to the Complainants.

People who believe they are the victims of housing discrimination should contact HUD at 800-669-9777 (voice) or 800-927-9275 (TTY). Additional information is available at www.hud.gov/fairhousing. Housing providers and others can learn more about their responsibility to provide reasonable accommodations and reasonable modifications to individuals with disabilities here. Materials and assistance are available for persons with limited English proficiency. Individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing may contact the Department using the Federal Relay Service at 800-877-8339.

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Read the September 25, 2023 HUD release.

Project Begun to Increase Accessibility of Baltimore-Area Houses of Worship

To help religious leaders make their houses of worship more welcoming to people with disabilities and their families, the Kennedy Krieger Institute’s Maryland Center for Developmental Disabilities just started its Faith Community Learning Collaborative. The object is to provide training to faith leaders and foster conversation between them and people with disabilities and their advocates about how to lower the barriers to participation in religious spaces.

Accessibility and inclusion is about more than installing a ramp for wheelchair users, said Mirian Ofonedu, director of training for the Kennedy Krieger center and creator of the project, adding that negative attitudes about disabilities and biases around disability that may exist in a congregation and ensuring that people with disabilities and their families know they can come to worship. “We are all called to know God, but more importantly, to experience God,” Ofonedu said. “How people with disabilities go about experiencing God is often socially stigmatized. An inclusive community, where people with disabilities fully participate, is a sign of God’s presence and love in that community.”

In summer 2022, two years after the Maryland Center for Developmental Disabilities launched the project, a survey of over 255 faith leaders and people with disabilities and their families - in collaboration with the Maryland Department of Health’s Office of Faith Based and Community Partnerships and the Faith Community Commission of the Governor’s Commission on Suicide Prevention - found that few people with disabilities or their family members held leadership positions in their faith communities and there was a need for training for faith leaders on how to connect with people who have disabilities in their congregations. People with disabilities and their families had experienced feeling isolated, rejected, and excluded by faith communities. When a child is diagnosed with a disability, their parents often turn to their faith leaders and communities for support and guidance, Ofonedu said. 

The Initiative's panel discussion covered several topics, including how to include people with developmental disabilities in services and the importance of asking whether accommodations are needed. It featured Rabbi Craig Axler of Temple Isaiah in Fulton and Matthew Plantz, a self-advocate and member of the Howard County Autism Society board of directors. To make the event more accessible to people who are hard of hearing, Baron hired an American Sign Language interpreter — something he hopes to do at future Chabad events, as well. The religious center has been offering shorter services that may be better for people who have challenges sitting through a three-hour service, such as those with ADHD or children with disabilities.

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Source: Read the September 11, 2023 Baltimore Sun article.

HUD to honor 50th Anniversary of Rehabilitation Act

 

50th Anniversary Event to be held September 12th     On Tuesday, September 12, 2023, from 1:00 – 2:30 pm EDT, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will host a hybrid event commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, a landmark law providing civil rights to persons with disabilities in all federal programs and activities.  What is the Act   The Rehabilitation Act is a core component of FHEO’s mission to ensure affordable, accessible, and integrated housing for persons with disabilities nationwide, and the promise of housing choice for all. Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act was the first disability civil rights law to be enacted in the United States. It prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in programs that receive federal financial assistance, and set the stage for enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Section 504 works together with the ADA and IDEA to protect children and adults with disabilities from exclusion, and unequal treatment in schools, jobs and the community. The law also established the Access Board (section 502).  Later amendments strengthened requirements for access to electronic and information technology in the Federal sector (Section 508).  With passage the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2010, a new provision (section 510) was added to address access to medical diagnostic equipment.  The Access Board plays a lead role in developing and maintaining standards for electronic and information technology under section 508 and medical diagnostic equipment covered by section 510. Section 502 Section 508 Section 510 The Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF) - a leading national civil rights law and policy center directed by individuals with disabilities and parents who have children with disabilities - provides these materials and others regarding the Act: Sample Section 504 Plan and Health Care Plan for a Student with Diabetes A Comparison of ADA, IDEA, and Section 504 A sit-in and demonstrations in San Francisco and Washington DC, in 1977, changed the course of civil rights history, and resulted in the signing of the 1977 Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) regulations implementing Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. About the Event During the HUD event, panelists will examine the history of the disability rights movement, successes, emerging issues, and the continued need for vigorous enforcement of fair housing and civil rights laws prohibiting discrimination against persons with disabilities and ensuring equal opportunity. The event will feature a discussion of disability rights in federally funded programs with Disability Rights Attorney, John Wodatch, Chief Program and Policy Officer, Regina Blye, & HUD Associate General Counsel, Jeanine Worden, discuss disability rights in federally funded programs, along with a interesting video underscoring the importance of housing choice for all. Learn more about the event here. John Wodatch, Disability Rights Attorney Regina Blye, Chief Program and Policy Officer, The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation Sean Barrett, Program Analyst, Compliance and Disability Rights Division, HUD FHEO Jeanine Worden, HUD Associate General Counsel for Fair Housing   You can register to watch the event virtually by clicking the link or scanning the QR code below: http://bit.ly/3QO67sh.

You can follow Secretary Fudge on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

HUD's mission is to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all. More information about HUD and its programs is available on the Internet at www.hud.gov and espanol.hud.gov. You can also connect with HUD on social media or sign up for news alerts on HUD's Email List.

 

HUD COVID-19 Resources and Fact Sheets

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Sources: 

HUD Fair Housing News, August 31, 2023.

https://www.eeoc.gov/statutes/rehabilitation-act-1973.

https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/fair_housing_equal_opp/fheo_commemorates_50th_anniversary_rehabilitation_act.

https://www.access-board.gov/law/ra.html

https://dredf.org/legal-advocacy/laws/section-504-of-the-rehabilitation-act-of-1973/

U. S. Supreme Court Case would Curb Use of ADA and Fair Housing Testers

 Supreme Court Case to begin Oral Arguments on October 4th

Beginning October 4, 2023,  the U.S. Supreme Court will hear Acheson Hotels v. Laufer, an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) case with critical implications for individuals enforcing federal civil rights laws. The case involves a challenge to over 40 years of precedent establishing that civil rights “testers” – people who intentionally investigate and challenge discrimination – can bring a lawsuit to enforce civil rights laws, like the ADA. Civil rights advocates have long used testers to uncover unlawful discrimination in areas like housing and transportation. Read the friend-of-the-court brief.

The case regards Deborah Laufer, a woman from Florida who uses a wheelchair and has a visual impairment. As a civil rights tester, she reviews hotel websites looking for violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires that hotels disclose sufficient detail on the features of their properties so that people with disabilities can know whether they can safely access them. This includes whether a person in a wheelchair can get in the door to the hotel, or into the room itself; whether the room has an accessible bathroom with grab bars and a roll-in shower; and whether the bed be at the height that it is possible to transfer to.

Laufer sued Acheson Hotels, which operates a small hotel in Maine, after finding that the hotel’s website did not identify accessible rooms, provide an option for booking an accessible room, or include sufficient information on the hotel’s accessibility. Acheson Hotels moved to dismiss the case, arguing that Laufer lacked standing to sue because she had no intention of visiting the hotel. A federal district court agreed, but the decision was reversed by the First Circuit. The U. S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit held that Laufer had standing to sue in federal court and had standing to pursue injunctive relief. Acheson Hotels asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the First Circuit’s decision. On March 27, 2023 the Supreme Court announced that it would consider the case beginning October 4th. 

The Legal Defense Fund, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, and 17 other disability and civil rights organizations - including the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Maine, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and Lambda Legal -  have just filed a “friend-of-the-court” brief in this case that defends testing as essential to the enforcement of the ADA and argues that eliminating tester standing would frustrate the ADA’s goal of equal opportunity. The brief discusses how unequal treatment has long been recognized as the sort of harm that can be remedied in court and explains how an individual’s motive, or status as a “tester,” does not change that. 

If successful, Acheson  Hotel’s case in the Supreme Court will make it even harder for people with disabilities to enforce their rights and bring businesses into compliance with the ADA. 

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Sources:

Read the August 10, 2023 ACLU article.

Read the March 27, 2023 SCOTUSblog article.

Read the Ballotpedia case details & summaries.