May 4, 2016
The month of April may have been Fair Housing Month, but the work of the Department of Housing and Urban Development continues in the cause of ending housing discrimination. One of the latest press releases from HUD involves an investigation of alleged housing discrimination in New York.
According to a press release on the HUD official site, “The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced today that it is charging a White Plains, New York, co-op with housing discrimination for refusing to grant an exception to its policies that would allow a person with disabilities to buy a unit there. HUDs Office of Regional Counsel for New England, which has jurisdiction over the case, issued the Charge of Discrimination on April 26”.
Such discrimination is not permitted under the Fair Housing Act, which offers legal protections to “residents with disabilities who request reasonable accommodations in policies or practices. Additionally, the law makes it illegal to make housing unavailable” to anyone because of a disability.
Persons with disabilities depend on reasonable accommodations to level the playing field when it comes to finding a place to call home. Refusing to provide them denies access to housing and it violates the law, said Gustavo Velasquez, HUD Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, who was quoted in the press release. He adds, HUD will continue to take action when owners and homeowner associations fail to meet their obligations under the Fair Housing Act.
This case went under investigation by HUD “after a person with disabilities filed a complaint alleging that he was denied the opportunity to buy a unit at Thompkins Manor, a 155-unit cooperative in White Plains, New York, because of his disabilities” according to the press release. “The mans parents had created a supplemental needs irrevocable trust to provide for the mans care. In August 2013, the man and his parents attempted to purchase a cooperative unit using the trust as the owner. According to the Charge, 505 Central Avenue Corp., which owns Thompkins Manor, rejected the application because the cooperative did not permit ownership by trust. The family allegedly asked the company to make an exception to its ownership rule as a reasonable accommodation, but it refused to do so.”
The case will be heard by a U.S. Administrative Law Judge “unless any party to the charge elects to have the case heard in federal district court” according to the HUD official site. The case has not been settled, nor have any determinations been made, so these charges are at the time of this writing, still waiting to be addressed.
If you believe you have experienced housing discrimination, file a complaint by contacting HUDs Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at (800) 669-9777 (voice) or (800) 927-9275 (TTY).
Do you work in residential real estate? You should know about the free tool offered by FHA.com. It is designed especially for real estate websites; a widget that displays FHA loan limits for the counties serviced by those sites. It is simple to spend a few seconds customizing the state, counties, and widget size for the tool; you can copy the code and paste it into your website with ease. Get yours today:
http://www.fha.com/fha_loan_limits_widget
Joe Wallace has been specializing in military and personal finance topics since 1995. His work has appeared on Air Force Television News, The Pentagon Channel, ABC and a variety of print and online publications. He is a 13-year Air Force veteran and a member of the Air Force Public Affairs Alumni Association. He was Managing editor for www.valoans.com for (8) years and is currently the Associate Editor for FHANewsblog.com.
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