Fair Housing

Fair 

I thought about holding a contest to see who might be able to come up with what I believe may be the two most important words for fair housing this year.  But being generous of heart and spirit, I am simply going to tell you the two words, and then (not so simply, but still understandably, I hope) I will explain my rationale. 

When do you have to go to bed?  Well, maybe you don’t have a bedtime, but do you have a curfew?  Who is the boss of you anyway?

The topic of curfews comes up in my fair housing classes (notice the segue here – ahem) when I am speaking to the issue of reasonable v. unreasonable rules for children at apartment communities.  I remind attendees that children are not a protected class (brats aren’t either, BTW), but that the adults, with whom children live, are protected from housing discrimination based on familial status (having a child under the age of 18).  Then I cover the rules that are likely OK for a landlord to impose on children (in my mind, there are only 3).  Often during that dialogue someone raises their hand and asks about curfews, as in “Isn’t it OK to have a curfew for children?”.

I usually respond by asking what time they require the Koreans to come in, or perhaps the Baptists, to make my point.  Then I am assailed (it is not easy being a fair housing teacher) with comments.  “The county has a curfew.”  (Yep, it does – for public, not private property.  Can the sheriff arrest you for having your child playing in the back yard late in the evening?)  “Kids damage the property.”  (Yep, sometimes they do.  But your curfew means that you are fine with damage at the property as long as it is done by someone older than 18.)  “Kids are at risk.”  (Yep, they can be; call family services if you are concerned.)  My position (which is not shared by all in the fair housing community, FYI) is that curfews could be considered a form of familial status discrimination.

Now, I will be the first to tell you that sometimes, P.C. goes just a tad too far.  When we are having full national campaigns to eradicate a word...Let me just say, sometimes its just silly. 

But this post isn't about being politically correct. I experienced something this morning that was exclusion-ism at it's finest. And, it was merely from an email.  An email sent out with good intentions to all our residents and vendors which simply said, "From all of us at 1st Lake Properties, Happy Holidays." Here is the reply I received from a resident below:

1st Lake, 

Housing and criminal background checks are done to protect the safety and well being of others on the property. In todays climate where we have so many reasons for being taken to court I am looking for debate on the law and fairness. Fair housing laws change and these changes come about because of cases where there are wrongs that need to be righted.

I got into a debate with a legal person about felons with violent and non violent crimes who have done their time and housing and do the current laws discriminate against folks that have served their time and now trying to get their lives back on track? Do the current laws assist them in getting back into society or stack the deck against them where they end up back in a life of crime?

There are those that overlook felony convictions that are not violent, sexual, or drug related because they say the non violent cases do not pose a safety concern to the other tenants. There are others that say hey no matter violent or not, they are a felon that is it, and I am not taking a chance.

Every once in a while I may throw something in playing devil's advocate after a comment. Now there are those who will see something written and you have to keep in mind that there are some differences by states where felons are concerned such as Florida and California as an example in laws that govern felons. So when someone responds if you would put your state it will assist others in structuring their comments as well as it will allow all of us to see the differences by states. If you want to reference a law for your state that is fine.

Aha!  Now that Christmas carol is an earworm for you!  (Although that was not my true intent for this post.) 

Historically I have written about linguistic profiling (when we profile folks not from what we see but by how they sound).  Now it is time to share with you the latest (and for our industry, not-so-greatest) issue of profiling which I saw coming (ahem) – name profiling through email.

Good grief – the title of this blog sounds like an article in a boring math journal.  Hopefully I can manage to make this not a boring fair housing blog.  I’ll try to do that by making this entry a brief one.

Question – should you be using the universal wheelchair symbol -     - in your advertising?

Answer – it depends!  (Yea, we lawyers try never to give a clear and concise answer.)

Last year I shared a word search with you and I thought I would be fun to do so again. Let me know if you get stumped.  One important hint: just because you find a particular word, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is an answer!  Have fun…

Z Z D D B H D E L B A S I D H

S E I N O L E F N S N H M E O

P A R K I N G A O L E O A I A

S F R H S Q D T I I V R Y G R

G W H E T A E N G A E S M H D

G T A M N C D A I M S E N T I

T Y H Y A C J V L E R S Z J N

O E M V C L T E E E B Y A M G

N S O K I S P L R A L W A Y S

N L V J L T N E G N I S A E L

A N W L P A J R F I F T E E N

C N E M P R I R J L G B T C C

G G O V A B I I N R H Q T T A

Y O Q N E S T N E D I S E R Y

R E T Y E R E C I O V Y T A E

This post is meatier and juicier than many of my others (perhaps I am thinking about that turkey to come in the next few days – Happy Thanksgiving BTW from someone who well knows the blessings in her life).  Hang with me here, as many of you will be surprised, particularly as to the third issue below (c’mon – read the first two, too).

It is not unusual for me to be asked questions about the Americans with Disabilities Act, or to hear folks in the multifamily housing industry refer to the ADA when they really mean the FHA – Fair Housing Act.  Yet these two significant pieces of federal legislation are vastly different.  The irony is that where you might think the ADA would apply at apartment communities, it doesn’t; but where you might not think of it at all, there it is.  So here are 3 tidbits for you (the end result likely being that either I will have clarified for you or confused you more):

A big player (note the sports theme evolving here) in our industry recently settled a fair housing lawsuit for allegedly not responding properly to a request for reasonable accommodation by a person with a disability (PWD).  Part of the settlement involved the company agreeing to implement policies to avoid such mishap in the future; perhaps those can serve as a game plan for others as well.  Here are the requirements:

• When a property manager or owner receives a request for an accommodation from a PWD, the manager or owner must take steps to communicate with the PWD and identify whether or not it is reasonable to provide the accommodation.
• Coach’s Tip:  [Note that I would be the Coach since I am the one writing this blog.]  Make sure your team members (groundskeepers, housekeepers, leasing staff, maintenance staff) know to report to their property manager or owner anything that even remotely would suggest that it is a request for reasonable accommodation by a PWD.   This is not the time to punt!
• The company will make immediate changes ensuring that all reasonable accommodation requests are responded to within 10 business days.
• Coach’s Tip: The company involved here is large; if they can make this happen in 10 business days, so can you.  Making it longer would not be a strategic move.
• There will be the mandatory use of a centralized computer database to record relevant dates.
• Coach’s Tip:  Your company many not be large enough to need a computer database, but there are vital stats to be recorded.  If not on a computer, maintain these stats on paper.
• The relevant dates include: when a PWD makes a request for an accommodation; the date that it is submitted to management or the owner; the date the company makes a decision and informs the PWD; and the date additional information is provided by the PWD, if requested.
• Coach’s Tip: I would add an offensive play here; a follow up with the PWD to be sure that the accommodation (if was granted – not all will be) was executed as planned and that the result has been as expected.  If not, follow up and invite the PWD to give you more input on how to make it all work.

More fair housing complaints come from existing residents than from prospects wanting to have housing; and disability is the basis for the most complaints.  While we have a sports theme here, keep in mind this is not a game!  Come up with a game plan now for your team’s process in handling requests for reasonable accommodation.  As those Nike folks say, “Just do it!”.

When I teach about reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities, we talk about "whiny neighbors" - those folks who want to know why someone has an animal that is not pet policy compliant, or why they have a reserved parking space. I always advise not to say "it is a service animal" or "they have a disability", but rather to say something along the lines of "That person has that because, as always, this company/owner complies with the law."   While I always thought that to be a good response, it raised the question for many as to what should be the response when the next question is "Oh, yeah.  What law is that?"

I believe I am a good teacher; I also believe that a good teacher is always willing to learn.  I am fortunate to have a number of fine people in my “fair housing circle” to whom I can turn for insight and input.  So I posed to them the question: “If the whiny neighbor is persistent, what is the best thing to say at this point to, quite frankly, shut that person up?”  Now I admit that was not the most eloquent way to position my inquiry, but I did get back what I think is an excellent answer from D.J. Ryan with the law firm of Kimball, Tirey and St. John (I consider D.J. a friend as well as a colleague).  So a big thanks to D.J. for suggesting this response: “We don’t disclose private information about other residents, just as we wouldn’t disclose private information to other residents about you.”