While landlords are accustomed to accommodating tenants with mobility issues, it’s more difficult to define reasonable accommodations for other disabilities or medical conditions.
In 2004, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Justice defined a reasonable accommodation as a “change, exception, or adjustment to a rule, policy, practice, or service that may be necessary for a person with a disability to have an equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling, including public and common use spaces.”
This means that reasonable accommodation might include:
- Allowing an interpreter to negotiate a lease for a hearing-impaired applicant,
- Replacing the carpet in a unit for an asthma patient,
- Assigning preferential or assigned parking to a tenant recovering from a medical procedure.
It might also include working with a tenant who has violated a lease agreement because of a mental health condition instead of starting eviction procedures.
For over 50 years, CSA has provided critical fair housing services to help persons in need. More than 50% of the fair housing cases per year are related to disability. The main cause of the issues with disability related accommodation requests is usually due to a lack of understanding and housing providers not having proper fair housing training. Education is the key and should be an ongoing tool for housing providers to avoid claims of housing discrimination.
