Fair Housing Laws
Once you find housing that is comfortable, you need to focus
on maintaining yourself in that housing. Maintaining housing takes effort.
Your rights and responsibilities toward your living space, your landlord
and other tenants are things you need to consider. You also need to know
that you have rights and that there are laws to protect you.
There are right and wrong ways to communicate and work with landlords.
Landlords have many obligations to you as a tenant. There are specific
ways that they can and cannot treat you.
Let’s look at some examples:
- Example 1
Mary needs to find a new apartment. She has some anxiety about
finding a place. She is a black female who has paranoid schizophrenia.
Mary doesn’t need any further pressure from a landlord about her
ability to manage an apartment. Fair Housing laws will help make sure
that Mary is not stopped from having the opportunity to rent from a
landlord.
In Maine, there are “fair housing laws” that state that
a landlord cannot refuse to rent to you because of your race, color,
national origin or ancestry, religion, sex, disability, living with
minor children or getting public assistance. This legal protection is
both broad and specific. Under this law, Mary cannot be turned down
for housing because of her color, sex or her mental illness. If she
were turned down for one of these reasons, it would be a case of discrimination.
If Mary felt that she was being discriminated against it would to her
benefit to advocate for fair housing. Fair housing laws hold that it
is illegal to be threatened or treated wrongly because an individual
tried to enforce fair housing laws. This protects Mary or anyone else
in her situation from being threatened, pressured, harassed, or abused
against for trying to ensure housing rights. If you are threatened,
pressured, harassed, or abused against for trying to advocate for your
rights get help and contact Pine Tree legal at (207) 774-4753.
- Example 2
The Clarks are a family of six. Mrs. Clark is expecting to have
twins in two to three months. They will need to find a bigger residence
because the housing code only allows seven people to rent the size apartment
they live in now.
Mr. Clark has the job of finding a new home for his family. He is considering
buying a house. Mr. Clark is currently only able to work part time because
of an inflammation of a disease he has called Lupus. The family is receiving
housing assistance from the city and Mr. Clark receives social security
disability for income.
How do fair housing laws protect the Clarks from being discriminated
from having a stable place to live?
A landlord cannot refuse to rent to the Clark’s because they have
children or because Mrs. Clark is pregnant. But housing codes can limit
the number of people who can rent a unit depending on its size. So this
will limit Mr. Clark’s search to housing units that can rent to
eight or more people.
Maine law holds that you must be treated the same as other tenants.
A landlord cannot treat an individual differently because he/she gets
help from the town, state, or the U.S. government. The Clarks should
be treated as though they are equally qualified to rent from a landlord,
just like those who are not receiving government assistance are treated.
The fact that the Clarks receive government assistance and Mrs. Clark
is pregnant should not prevent them from the pursuit of a larger home
for their large family. “If you are trying to buy a home, a seller
cannot refuse to sell to you, or make it harder for you to buy. A real
estate agent cannot refuse to serve you. A home mortgage lender cannot
refuse you a loan or make it harder for you to get a loan.”
The fair housing laws will protect the Clark’s investment in housing.
The size of the Clark’s family, Mrs. Clark’s pregnancy,
Mr. Clark’s disability, and the fact the family receives financial
assistance from social security and government housing subsidies are
all challenges that the Clarks must deal with as they try to get new
housing. However, fair housing laws protect the Clarks from being discriminated
against because of these situations.
- Example 3
Mike has Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and he is disabled from
this. He is allergic to antidepressant medications. His prescription
for therapy requires a drastic increase in lighting in his apartment.
He needs to have new electrical outlets and light fixtures put in so
he can get the proper lighting to help him feel better. Can Mike get
this done and if he can, how should he go about it?
Reasonable Modification: A reasonable modification is a physical change
to the unit that a landlord allows a tenant to make to fully use and
enjoy the place where he/she lives.
Because Mike is disabled he must be allowed to make a change to the
place he lives in order to enjoy full use of it. However, there are
several guidelines Mike must follow.
He must pay for the change unless his landlord receives federal funding
for his rent. If that’s the case, his landlord will be required
to pay for the change. His landlord can require him to restore the place
to the way it was before the change happened. Mike may be responsible
for having the added outlets and light fixtures removed before he moves
out. A change might not be approved if it’s a financial burden
to the landlord. A change can also be denied if it alters the basic
qualities of the program.
- Example 4
Samantha lives in a transitional housing environment for people
with mental illnesses. Samantha benefits a lot from this living environment.
Besides her mental illness, Samantha suffers from other physical illnesses
that she needs to take prescription medications for. To avoid drug interactions,
Samantha takes medications five different times a day.
In the transitional housing program, they have a policy that requires
residents to have supervision while they take medications for the first
six months of their stay. This is to ensure that residents take their
medications and take them correctly. For Samantha, it would be difficult
for her to have supervision every time she takes her medicine. She would
have to stay home from her day program, which is helpful to her recovery
and independence.
Samantha needs a reasonable accommodation that enables her to take some
of her daily medications during times of the day when she is not home.
A reasonable accommodation by her landlord and the program coordinator
where she lives will be to make an exception and allow Samantha to take
her medicine twice daily on her own. A contact person at her day program
can communicate to the staff at Samantha’s residence that she
took her medicine as directed. This adjustment will allow Samantha to
get the benefits she needs to be healthy and become independent.
Reasonable Accommodation: A reasonable accommodation is an adjustment
in rules, policies, practices, or services to help people with disabilities.
A landlord must make a reasonable accommodation when it’s necessary
to allow a disabled person to use or enjoy the premises as others do.
A reasonable accommodation might be denied if it is understood as a
potential burden to management. The reasonable accommodation may be
denied if it changes the basic qualities of the program. Once an individual
has received a reasonable accommodation for his/her disability then
that person “can’t be treated differently from persons without
disabilities.”
Americans with Disabilities
People who need to use wheelchairs to get around have some protections
through the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act of
1973, and the Federal Fair Housing Act of 1988, and the Maine Human Rights
Act. Since 1991 all buildings are required to be handicap accessible.
These Acts have had a positive impact on the lives of people in wheelchairs
and all people with disabilities.
Specifically, individuals in wheelchairs are entitled to have ramps to
accommodate their travel. If the individual in the wheelchair pays a normal
rent that is not subsidized he or she is required to pay for the ramp.
If the person lives in subsidized housing it is the landlord’s responsibility
to pay for the ramp.
Individuals in wheelchairs have the legal right to request reasonable
modifications and reasonable accommodations. Typical reasonable modifications
include ramps that they have access to, grab bars in the bathrooms, light
switches lowered, and doors that open outward, and even elevators.
An example of a reasonable accommodation would be an allowance in policy
that allows someone in a wheelchair to pay their rent by mail even if
the landlord’s policy is to have tenants pay their rent directly
in person. This accommodation may be needed especially during snowy, icy,
rainy or windy weather conditions.
The reasons that individuals in wheelchairs may not get their request
for reasonable modifications and reasonable accommodations are the same
for others with disabilities. If a potential modification or accommodation
presents an administrative burden that changes the basic qualities of
the program or if it would cause an undue financial burden it may be denied.
Who to contact if you believe you have been discriminated against?
Discrimination is illegal. If you feel you have been treated
unfairly, unfavorably, or differently from the way you should be treated,
because of your characteristics and/or your behavior you may be a victim
of discrimination. If an individual believes that he or she is a victim
of discrimination, then he or she can file a complaint with either the
Maine Human Rights Commission, or with HUD (The U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development). They can be reached by contacting:
-
Maine Human Rights Commission (MHRC)
51 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333-0051
V oice: (207) 624-5060, TTY/TTD: (207) 624-6064, FAX: (207) 624-6063
File a complaint on-line at http://www.state.me.us/mhrc/index.shtml.
If you file a complaint with the MHRC you must do it within 6 months
of the landlord’s illegal act.
-
HUD’s regional office is in Boston:
HUD Office of Fair Housing
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Thomas P. O’Neill, Jr. Federal Bldg.
10 Causeway St., Room 321
Boston MA 02222-1092
Phone: (800) 827-5005 or (617) 994-8300 or (617) 565-5308 or 1-800-827-5005,
TTY (617) 565-5453, FAX: (617) 565-7313
File a complaint on-line at http://www.hud.gov/complaints/housediscrim.cfm.
If you file a complaint with the United States Fair Housing Office,
(HUD) you must do so within one year of the landlord’s illegal
act. An individual can also bring an action in court, but he or she
should bring a lawyer.
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