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Q: Three months after a new resident moves in, your community learns that she has a cat in violation of your no-pet policy. A manager tells her that she must remove the cat or face eviction, but the resident asks to keep it, explaining that she has physical and mental impairments and that she needs the cat for emotional support.
In April 2016, HUD released new guidance on how federal fair housing law applies to the use of criminal records in both conventional and assisted housing communities. The new guidelines spell out how HUD will evaluate fair housing complaints in cases where a community refuses to rent or renew a lease based on an individual’s criminal history. Based on the latest guidance, you may have many questions about whether—and when—you can use criminal background checks when screening applicants at your community.
Q: Our community allows pets, but not pit bulls, because we believe they pose a safety risk. If a resident says her pit bull is an assistance animal, must we consider making an exception to the breed restriction as a reasonable accommodation?
Last week, New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced a series of initiatives to beef up enforcement of the state’s fair housing law. These initiatives are the latest aggressive actions to protect the state’s most vulnerable individuals from illegal housing practices, according to the announcement. These efforts include:
In the March 2016 lesson, Fair Housing Coach features 37 tips to help you and your staff prevent fair housing trouble at your community. Fair housing law can get pretty complicated, but the tips included in this lesson cover management strategies to ensure fair housing compliance, along with training tips so all your staff members understand what they should—and shouldn’t—do to head off potential problems. Here’s a sampling:
Q: You must consider a resident’s request to allow a member of her household who has a mobility impairment to park in accessible space reserved for visitors, instead of the space assigned to that unit. True or false?
Q: A resident reports that his upstairs neighbor has been harassing him because of his race. If you ignore his complaint, your community could be sued for harassment under fair housing law. True or false?
Q: Your community recently broke ground on a renovation project. A few weeks into the construction, you receive a request from a resident for a transfer to another unit away from the construction as a reasonable accommodation. The resident, who lives on the first floor near the project, says that he has post-traumatic stress disorder related to his time in military service and that the noise from the construction is triggering nightmares and other symptoms of his condition.
The Coach recently examined fair housing requirements in 30 of the nation’s largest cities. The focus on local fair housing laws will only intensify in large cities—where the rental population is booming, but many struggle to find available units, according to a new report.
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