The Trainer

Complying with Disability-Related Civil Rights Laws

In this month's feature, we discussed complying with recent Department of Justice and HUD guidance on providing reasonable accommodations and modifications for applicants and residents with disabilities. Here is a brief review of the key points.

Sites are subject to the various requirements of:

• The Fair Housing Act;

• Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973;

• The Americans with Disabilities Act; and

• State and local laws that may offer additional protections.

Site owners and managers should review their site's structure, policies, and operations to ensure that there are no illegal barriers to access and/or discriminatory practices in place. You should consider whether policies and procedures may be discriminatory in effect, if not in explicit intent, because you are equally liable for them.

Section 504 requires owners to operate each site so that, when viewed in its entirety, it is readily accessible to and usable by persons with disabilities. Section 504 requires owners to respond to reasonable accommodations requests from residents or applicants with disabilities for adjustments to site policies and/or physical alterations.

Under Section 504, subsidized site owners must make and pay for reasonable structural or physical modifications to dwelling units and/or common areas that are needed by applicants and residents with disabilities, unless these modifications would change the fundamental nature of the project or result in undue financial and administrative burdens to the property. Owners of sites that are not subject to Section 504 may not have to pay for the modification, but they would have to allow it.

An owner does not have to allow a modification unless the resident's health care provider verifies the need for it.

The law distinguishes between reasonable modifications and reasonable accommodations. Property owners may be asked for either or both. A reasonable modification is a structural change made to the premises. A reasonable accommodation is a change, exception, or adjustment to a standing rule, policy, practice, or service.

In HUD-subsidized multifamily housing, if the owner believes a requested structural modification to the site is an undue burden, the resident still has the right to make the modification or accommodation at his own expense.

Owners of sites that should have been constructed in accordance with accessibility requirements but were not are obligated to retrofit their units to bring them into compliance with the Fair Housing Act.

TRAINER'S QUIZ

INSTRUCTIONS: Each of the questions below has only one correct answer. On a separate sheet of paper, write down the number of each question, followed by the answer you have chosen—for example, 1) b, 2) a, and so on. The correct answers (with explanations) follow the quiz. Good luck!

Question #1

Ms. Blake is a resident at an assisted housing site. She told a staff member she wants grab bars in her bathroom because of a health problem. The site policy requires verification of her need for the grab bars from a health provider, but Ms. Blake won't let management acquire one. Can the site deny her request?

1. Yes.

2. No.

Question #2

Smith Center Housing Company charges a $25 fee to process reasonable accommodation requests. Is the fee permissible?

1. Yes.

2. No.

Question #3

At Fair Oaks Apartments, a project-based assisted housing complex, a resident who uses a wheelchair has asked for a ramp to be added to the entrance of the rental office and community center. Must Fair Oaks consider the request?

1. Yes.

2. No.

Question #4

Since a resident did not make a request for reasonable accommodation at the beginning of his tenancy, the owner is not required to consider his request now. True or false?

1. True.

2. False.

Question #5

Your site has a policy of providing unassigned parking spaces to residents on a first-come, first-served basis. One of your residents, who uses a cane to walk, asks for you to assign her an accessible parking space close to the entrance to her unit. Since there are available parking spaces near the entrance to her unit that are accessible, you don't have to grant her request. True or false?

1. True.

2. False.

Question #6

A resident has a mobility impairment that substantially limits his ability to walk. He asks you to drive him to the grocery store and help him with his shopping as a reasonable accommodation to his disability. You don't provide any transportation or shopping services to your residents, so you may deny the request. True or false?

1. True.

2. False.

Question #7

A site owner is renting to a resident who uses a wheelchair. The building is old and does not have a wheelchair ramp, and the resident wants a small wooden ramp constructed at the building door to more easily access the building. He asks the owner if it is okay to build the ramp. The resident says he will pay all the costs, and agrees to have the ramp removed at his own expense when he leaves. The owner believes such a ramp will not look good on his building, so he may refuse to allow it to be constructed on his property under federal fair housing law. True or false?

1. True.

2. False.

Question #8

HUD has not yet implemented the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) for assisted housing. True or false?

1. True.

2. False.