HOUSING OPPORTUNITIES MADE EQUAL (HOME) *

phone (716) 854-1400 s fax (716) 854-1140*

Fighting For Civil Rights Since 1963

Insight Fall 2004

Complex to pay over $200,000 to settle disability case

 How would you like to be the owner of a luxury apartment complex and find out that because you had not complied with accessibility requirements when you first built your complex, you are now required to make massive renovations?    What if you learned that the cost to retrofit the apartments and common areas to make them handicap accessible will be well over $200,000?  This is the situation that the owners of the Oakwood Apartments recently found themselves in.

The Accessibility Guidelines of the Fair Housing Act were put into place to insure equal housing opportunity for people who have physical disabilities.  These guidelines apply to buildings of four or more units built for first occupancy after March 13^th, 1991.  They require that all units in buildings with an elevator, and ground floor units in buildings without an elevator, be accessible.  These building must be designed or constructed so that:

• The public and common areas are “readily accessible to and usable by” the disabled;

• All doors are wide enough to allow a wheelchair to pass;

• Interior living spaces have an accessible route in and out;

• Light switches, outlets, thermostats and other “environmental controls” are accessible;

• Bathroom walls are sufficiently reinforced to allow the safe installation of  “grab bars”; and

• Kitchens and bathrooms are large enough to allow a wheelchair to maneuver within the room.

  HOME is under contract with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to conduct accessibility testing in apartment buildings throughout Western New York to ensure that they are in compliance with these guidelines.  The Oakwood Apartments in Boston, NY, built in the 1990’s, was selected for such an investigation. 

HOME’s investigator noted numerous areas of non-compliance in the complex’s allegedly accessible first floor apartments. The violations were substantial enough to make the complex inaccessible for a person with mobility impairments. Therefore, HOME filed a complaint of discrimination based on disability with HUD.

 Rather than agreeing to settle the matter with HUD  by correcting the problems HOME had found,  the owners argued that the complex was not required to comply with the Fair Housing Act guidelines because construction had begun just prior to the regulations being put in place.

 HUD found that the complex was covered by the Act and then enlarged the scope of the investigation. During negotiations with HOME and the Division of Human Rights (DHR), a HUD inspector confirmed HOME’s testing results and found that numerous additional renovations were necessary to make the building accessible to everyone who may want to live there. 

As part of a settlement agreement, Oakwood Place management agreed to bring the complex into compliance.  The total cost of the required renovations has been estimated at $241,000—far more than what they would have paid if they had settled with HUD initially.

The cost of retrofitting apartments after construction is substantially more then if architects, builders and owners of apartment complexes would make the designated apartments and common areas accessible in the first place.  There are no excuses for this kind of discrimination against people with disabilities and the cost can be astronomical.

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