Accommodations

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When it comes to fair housing compliance, the watchword is consistency. In most cases, consistency in how you treat everyone—starting from anyone who calls or visits your community to applicants, residents, and their guests—is the best way to ward off claims of discrimination based on race, color, sex, or other characteristics protected under federal, state, or local law.

This month's lesson discusses federal, state, and local laws protecting military service members, veterans, and their families. In the context of fair housing, the laws in some states and municipalities specifically list military or veteran status as a protected characteristic, and some fair housing experts believe those protections are likely to be adopted on the federal level in the near future.

This month's issue of Fair Housing Coach focuses on how to handle requests for assistance animals. Although communities generally are free to set rules restricting the presence or type of animals allowed on their property, fair housing law may require you to make an exception to those rules to allow an assistance animal as a reasonable accommodation for an individual with a disability.

This month, we are going to review the fair housing rules as they pertain to disabilities that may not be obvious or apparent. The law prohibits communities from excluding or otherwise discriminating against individuals with disabilities. It also imposes duties on communities to provide reasonable accommodations and modifications as necessary to allow individuals with disabilities to fully enjoy their dwellings.

This month, we are going to focus on how to handle parking requests as reasonable accommodations for residents with disabilities. The Fair Housing Act (FHA) requires communities to make exceptions to rules, policies, practices, or services as a reasonable accommodation to afford a resident with a disability an opportunity to use and enjoy his dwelling that is equal to the opportunity afforded to those who are not disabled.

This month, the focus is on complying with fair housing requirements when faced with a request from a resident with a disability to transfer to a particular unit within a community.

This month, we are going to review fair housing law pertaining to individuals with disabilities. If you find it challenging to understand and comply with all the fair housing rules applicable to individuals with disabilities, you are not alone. According to HUD's most recent annual report, the most common basis of complaints filed last year was disability discrimination, cited in 43 percent of the 10,154 complaints received.

As part of its protections against discrimination on the basis of disability, the Fair Housing Act (FHA) aims to improve accessibility for people with disabilities by imposing seven design and construction requirements on certain multifamily communities—generally speaking, those that opened for first occupancy after March 13, 1991.