WASHINGTON, D.C. – (RealEstateRama) — The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced today two agreements between the owners and managers of Plainview Mobile Home Park in Casper, Wyoming, and two families who complained they were unlawfully denied the reasonable modifications they needed. Read the Conciliation Agreements here and here.
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The Fair Housing Act prohibits housing providers from denying or limiting housing to people with disabilities, or from refusing to make reasonable modifications which may be necessary to afford people with disabilities full enjoyment of a premises.
“Landlords are required to make reasonable modifications to their units that allow residents with disabilities to fully use and enjoy the place they call home,” said Gustavo Velasquez, HUD Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. “Today’s agreement will remind housing providers of the importance of complying with their obligations under the Fair Housing Act.”
The cases came to HUD’S attention when the Wyoming families filed complaints alleging thatRHP Properties, Inc., located in Farmington Hills, Michigan, the company’s owner, and its former regional manager denied their requests of reasonable modifications needed by members of their families. Specifically, the families claimed that RHP Properties denied their requests to erect chain-link fences around their yards so that their children, who are deaf or hard of hearing, could play in a controlled environment.
RHP is the largest mobile home park owner/manager in the nation, controlling more than 60,000 rental lots in 28 states.
Under the two agreements, RHP agreed to provide monetary relief, grant the families permission to erect and maintain chain-link fences, and purchase and install “Deaf Child at Play” signs at designated locations throughout the mobile home park. RHP also agreed to adopt reasonable accommodation and reasonable modification policies that are consistent with the Fair Housing Act, give copies of the policies to all new tenants applying to live at any of the properties they own and/or manage, and post fair housing posters in the rental offices for those properties.
Disability is the most common basis of complaint filed with HUD and its partner agencies. Last year alone, HUD considered more than 4,500 disability-related complaints or nearly 55 percent of all fair housing complaints.
People who believe they have experienced discrimination may file a complaint by contacting HUD’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at (800) 669-9777 (voice) or (800) 927-9275 (TTY). Housing discrimination complaints may also be filed by going to www.hud.gov/fairhousing, or by downloading HUD’s free housing discrimination mobile application, which can be accessed through Apple and Android devices.
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HUD’s mission is to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all.
More information about HUD and its programs is available on the Internet
at www.hud.gov and http://espanol.hud.gov.
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Elena Gaona
(202) 708-0685
