Fw: [DisabilityParty] Study shows Disabled Face Discrimination in 1/2 Rental Inquiries-HUD

[Guest guest]

Submitted By: Virginia L. Caraway BSN RN PHN CDDN

Joint Speaker: National Disability Party

HUD STUDY SHOWS PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES FACE DISCRIMINATION IN UP TO HALF OF

RENTAL INQUIRIES

New study the most comprehensive disability housing discrimination study

conducted

WASHINGTON - Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

released a groundbreaking study, Discrimination Against Persons With

Disabilities - Barriers at Every Step, that showed people with disabilities are

often discriminated against when trying to rent apartments. The agency plans to

use the comprehensive study to educate consumers and landlords on their rights

as well as provide fair housing advocates with new guidelines and strategies

that will allow them to investigate and detect discrimination against people

with disabilities. In addition, the study will assist the agency in continuing

to monitor the progress of discrimination against persons with disabilities in

the Chicago area and nationwide.

" The Americans with Disabilities Act, the landmark legislation signed fifteen

years ago tomorrow, has made great strides in reducing barriers to people with

disabilities in employment, government, and public places. " HUD Secretary

Alphonso said. " At HUD, that means breaking down the barriers to

affordable rental housing and homeownership that disabled individuals sometimes

face. Through a combination of outreach, technical assistance, and enforcement

of the Fair Housing Act, we've already accomplished a great deal but, we know

more has to be done. "

In the Chicago-based study, hearing-impaired people were discriminated against

approximately 50 percent of the time when using a telephone-operator relay to

search for rentals. Mobility impaired people using wheelchairs faced

discrimination about a third of the time when they visited rental properties.

" We would all like to think we have made more progress in educating landlords

about the Fair Housing Act but, this study paints a different picture of the

problems faced daily by people with disabilities, " said . " It is

imperative that landlords provide people with disabilities the same attention

and respect afforded all potential renters. We intend to educate both consumers

and landlords about the rights of disabled individuals. "

The study, conducted for HUD by The Urban Institute, is the most comprehensive

effort to date to measure the extent of housing discrimination in the United

States against people with disabilities. It specifically provides statistically

valid measures of the level of discrimination faced by two groups in the Chicago

metropolitan area: deaf persons using a TTY (text-telephone) relay system to

inquire about apartments advertised for rent and persons in wheelchairs visiting

rental providers in person in response to an advertised rental unit.

Discrimination Against Persons With Disabilities - Barriers at Every Step uses

" paired testing, " where researchers compare the treatment of the person with a

disability against a similarly qualified non-disabled person inquiring about the

same advertised unit. Analysts look at objective measures, such as whether or

not they were told the advertised unit was available, how many units they were

told about, and if they were offered an application to complete.

Highlights of the study include:

a.. Deaf people using the TTY system to inquire about advertised rental units

were refused service in one out of four calls. When leasing agents accepted TTY

calls, users received significantly less information, than comparable hearing

customers, about the application process.

a.. People with disabilities are frequently denied their requests for

reasonable modification and reasonable accommodation necessary to make the

available housing fully accessible.

a.. Both wheelchair users and deaf people using the TTY system received

significantly less encouragement to pursue a rental agreement and were less

likely to be offered a rental application than non-disabled customers.

a.. Nearly 20 percent of housing providers with on-site parking refused to

make the reasonable accommodation of providing a designated accessible parking

space for a wheelchair user.

a.. Discrimination is not the only obstacle that people with mobility

impairments face in searching for rental housing. At least a third of the

advertised rental properties in the Chicago area are not accessible to

wheelchair users.

Based upon the methodology and results, HUD is releasing with this report,

Guidance for Practitioners for fair housing advocates and include the study as

part of the Fair Housing Academy's core curriculum. The findings of the study

were also a major consideration when HUD recently decided to continue running

its highly successful fair housing public service announcements.

HUD has also placed a greater emphasis on combating disability discrimination in

recent years. The Department has invested over $5 million in the Fair Housing

Accessibility FIRST initiative, which has trained over 3500 builders,

developers, and others on the how to design and construct apartments and

condominiums with legally required accessibility features. Earlier this month,

the Department announced a landmark settlement of a disability discrimination

complaint, where a California developer will pay $1.2 million to help retrofit

units and common areas at San Diego condominium complex that allegedly failed to

comply with the accessibility provisions of the Fair Housing Act. Under its

authority to enforce Section 504, the Department has also conducted over a

hundred compliance reviews of recipients of HUD funds in the past eighteen

months, resulting in the creation of thousands of accessible dwelling units.

Copies of the study are available as a free download on the HUDUSER.org website

at http://www.huduser.org/publications/hsgspec/dds.html or in printed form for a

nominal charge by calling 1 (800) 245-2691.

HUD is the nation's housing agency committed to increasing homeownership,

particularly among minorities, creating affordable housing opportunities for

low-income Americans, supporting the homeless, elderly, people with disabilities

and people living with AIDS. The Department also promotes economic and community

development as well as enforces the nation's fair housing laws.

Anyone who believes they have experienced housing discrimination should contact

HUD at 1 (800) 669-9777 or visit HUD's fair housing website at www.hud.gov.