Human Rights And Equity Programs
The purpose of this toolkit is to provide you with the tools required to recognize the barriers that might prevent you from the complete use and satisfaction of your home and what you can do to eliminate them.
The federal Fair Housing Act (FHA) needs residential or commercial property owners to enable reasonable adjustments and reasonable lodgings to persons with disabilities so that they can have full usage and satisfaction of the residential or commercial property where they reside. The ease of access laws under the FHA make sure that, either through structural changes to the structure (normally described as "affordable modifications") or modifications in guidelines and policies (generally referred to as "sensible accommodations"), people with impairments have equal access to and enjoyment of their homes as do non-disabled individuals.
If you are an individual with a special needs, you have the legal right to obtain a modification or accommodation to your home, if it is a sensible request and it is needed to manage you access to and equal pleasure of the residential or commercial property. This demand can be made prior to moving into the unit or whenever during your tenancy. This toolkit is developed to help you assert your civil rights and demand a reasonable modification or a reasonable accommodation from your housing company.
This toolkit consists of:
- Information about your legal rights.
- Steps that will help you request a sensible adjustment or lodging.
- Templates for composing a demand for an affordable modification/accommodation.
- How and where to turn for aid.
Fair Housing for People with Disabilities
Everyone has a right to reasonable housing. The capability to live where one picks with dignity and without worry of discrimination is a standard right ensured to all people. The Fairfax County Office of Human Rights and Equity Programs (OHREP) implements the Fairfax County Human Rights Ordinance and the Fairfax County Fair Housing Act, which prohibit discrimination in housing. If you are an individual with a disability, you have the right to equivalent access to housing, consisting of complete enjoyment of your housing. If you think that you, or somebody you know, have experienced housing discrimination in Fairfax County, you can submit a complaint with OHREP, however you must do so within 365 days from the date the alleged discriminatory act occurred, or when it comes to a continuing infraction, from the date the supposed prejudiced act ended.
What is an Impairment?
The federal Fair Housing Act defines a special needs to consist of a physical or psychological problems that substantially restricts one or more major life activities. Major life activities are main activities to every day life, such as seeing, hearing, strolling, breathing, performing manual tasks, taking care of oneself, and speaking. A special needs can consist of a hearing, visual, or movement impairment; a medical condition; or a psychological disease.
The Right to Fair Housing
Federal, state, and local laws all prohibit housing discrimination versus individuals with disabilities. In specific, the federal Fair Housing Act restricts discrimination in housing on the basis of race, color, religious beliefs, nationwide origin, sex, special needs, and familial status. In addition, the Fairfax County Fair Housing Act restricts housing discrimination on the basis of elderliness (age 55 and older), marital status, source of funds, sexual orientation, gender identity, and status as a veteran. Under both the federal Fair Housing Act and the Fairfax County Fair Housing Act, people with impairments are entitled to enjoy the exact same housing chances as other locals. For instance, housing suppliers might not:
- Refuse to lease, offer, or work out housing.
- Set different terms, conditions, or benefits for sale or rental of a residence.
- Falsely deny that housing is readily available for assessment, sale, or rental.
- Discourage an individual from seeking housing in a particular community.
- Deny access to or membership in a facility or service related to the sale of housing.
- Refuse to enable a reasonable accommodation or reasonable adjustment (described below).
- Threaten or disrupt anybody making a reasonable housing problem.
- Harass a tenant or housing candidate.
- Take any other action to otherwise make housing not available.
Reasonable Accommodations and Modifications
People with impairments are entitled to reasonable lodgings and affordable modifications that are needed for them to enjoy complete usage of a residence.
- An affordable lodging is a modification in a rule, policy, practice, or service in order to provide a person with an impairment equal option and chance. Examples include assigning an available parking area to somebody with a mobility problems or permitting a service animal in a "no pets" building. In addition, a housing company can not need an animal cost for a service animal.
- A reasonable adjustment is a structural modification that manages a person with a special needs full usage and pleasure of the facility. Examples consist of setting up a ramp to an entryway door, broadening entrances, decreasing countertops, and setting up grab bars. Who pays? It depends. If the residential or commercial property is covered under new structure ease of access requirements, the housing supplier may be liable for any sensible adjustment expenses incurred. If the residential or commercial property is not covered, the resident might be accountable for associated costs.
Fair Housing Accessibility Requirements
Apartments and other multifamily housing initially occupied after March 13, 1991, need to also meet certain basic levels of ease of access. The availability requirements use to all systems in structures with 4 or more systems that have an elevator. If a structure with four or more systems has no elevator and was initially inhabited after March 13, 1991, these standards apply to ground floor systems just.
What Can a Housing Provider Ask?
Housing providers might explore an applicant's capability to fulfill occupancy requirements. This means that a property manager may ask whether you have enough income to be able to pay the lease, whether you want to comply with the needed rules (unless a reasonable accommodation is made), and other questions relating directly to tenancy. A housing service provider might also adopt and apply consistent, unbiased, and nondiscriminatory requirements created to evaluate a prospective tenant's credit merit, such as needing credit or criminal background checks.
If you have a disability, you can not be dealt with in a different way just since you are an individual with an impairment, nor can you have your housing option minimal because of a disability. Reasonable lodgings and affordable adjustments need to be just that-reasonable. When a person makes an affordable lodging or modification request, a landlord deserves to take a look at the relationship in between the demand being made and the disability. However, the person making the request stays entitled to privacy.
Even when a person makes an ask for a sensible lodging or modification, the proprietor is only entitled to know that an impairment exists which the request is associated to that impairment. The individual making the demand is not required to share the nature and complete extent of the impairment.
Questions like "Can you walk at all?"; "How did you lose your leg?"; or "For how long have you had to use that wheelchair?" are all unlawful. A proprietor can not talk with other tenants in the building about your impairment. Your special needs is no one's company however your own.
Principales editores del artículo
- BryanPinkham (Discusión |contribuciones) [1]
