User:DisabilityAdvocacy4U/Civil Rights Act of 1968

The Fair Housing Act and People with Disabilities

The Fair Housing Act defines a person with a disability in the same manner as the Americans with Disabilities Act – “a person with a physical or mental impairment which substantially limits one or more major life activities; a record of such an impairment; or being regarded as having such an impairment.” Fair Housing Act Amendments Regulations. 24 CFR § 100.201 https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/24/100.201

The Fair Housing Act provides several specific protections for buyers and tenants with disabilities. Landlords and sellers cannot make a dwelling unit unavailable or deny a dwelling to a buyer or renter because of their disability or the disability of any person who intends to reside in the dwelling or because of the disability of anyone with whom they are associated. They cannot deny a person with a disability all of the privileges provided in connection with the dwelling, because of the person’s disability. Fair Housing Act Amendments Regulations. 24 CFR § 100.202 https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/24/100.202

The Fair Housing Act (FHA) provides some specific protections for people with disabilities that facilitate independence and community living. First, the FHA allows tenants to make reasonable modifications to the existing premises. It makes it illegal for landlords to not allow people with disabilities to make reasonable modifications to the premises, at their own expense, if they need the modification to have full enjoyment of the premises. For example, an individual with a disability may require grab bars installed in order to have access to take a shower. The landlord must allow the tenant to install the grab bars to allow access to take a shower. However, technically, the landlord may require the tenant remove the grab bars at the end of the tenancy, at the tenant's own expense. However, the regulations specify that in rental housing, a landlord may not condition widening a bathroom doorway to provide wheelchair access, to its return to its former narrow state upon the end of the tenancy, since it will not interfere with the next tenants use and enjoyment of the premises. Fair Housing Act Amendments Regulations. 24 CFR § 100.203 https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/24/100.203

The second protection offered by the FHA includes the requirement that no one can refuse to make reasonable accommodations to “rules, policies, practices, or services, when the accommodation is necessary to afford” a person with a disability “equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling unit,” including the amenities of the dwelling, which may involve common areas. For example, a building with a “No Pets” policy would violate the FHA if it did not allow a blind person to have their seeing eye dog live with them as a reasonable accommodation to the policy. Similarly, a wheelchair user could request an assigned, accessible parking space as a reasonable accommodation in a “first come first serve” parking lot attached to an apartment complex, Fair Housing Act Amendments Regulations. 24 CFR § 100.204 https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/24/100.204 DisabilityAdvocacy4U (talk) 05:12, 29 March 2020 (UTC)