Fair Housing Laws and The Medical Community
2/8/2007

Fair Housing Laws and The Medical Community

Fair Housing Laws and The Medical Community

What does housing law have to do with medical practice? In a wide range of specific circumstances, the answer is, "a lot"! Where medical professionals get involved is in helping patients verify their need for a "reasonable accommodation" or "modification" in housing due to a disability. Read on to see how you can best assist your patients in need of an accommodation.
    Fair housing laws are federal, state, and local housing laws that prohibit public and private housing providers (e.g. landlords, managers, owners, sellers, agents, lenders, appraisers, home insurance companies, etc.) from discriminating against an individual because of his/her gender, race, color, national origin, religion, familial status, or disability. Washington state law adds marital status to this list; Oregon state law protects marital status and source of income. Several local jurisdictions have added additional protected classes including sexual orientation, age, and gender identity.
    Under these laws, housing providers may not refuse to lease, sell, finance, or otherwise enter into a housing transaction because of an individual’s membership in a protected class. Nor can they harass, provide different terms or conditions, steer to particular locations, or evict based on these protected bases.
Fair housing laws protect individuals who qualify as having a disability or who associate with individuals with disabilities in three ways:

1. prohibiting against direct discrimination

2. requiring that housing providers grant "reasonable accommodation" or "modification" requests, and

3. if the residence was built or substantially modified after 1991, the building must be accessible to individuals with mobility related disabilities

Housing providers may refuse such requests in few circumstances where they can provide a strong business reason for doing so (for example, if the requestor had a history of committing violent acts against others).

Fair housing laws define disability as possessing one or more mental or physical conditions that substantially impairs a major life activity, or being regarded as having such limitations. The protected basis of disability can include an individual with a history of a disability or someone in recovery from illegal drug use or alcohol abuse. (Current, active users or those in relapse are not protected.)

Definitions You Should Know:
"Reasonable accommodations" are requests for an exception to a housing provider’s rules, policies, or practices. The consumer must establish three things:

1. the accommodation is necessary because of his/her disability

2. the accommodation is necessary to access, maintain, or have full use and enjoyment of the housing

3. the request is directly related to the disability

An example of a reasonable accommodation might be a renter who has difficulty walking and rents from a landlord who does not offer assigned parking places. As a result of this policy, the renter may not be able to secure a parking place close enough to his/her unit to be able to get to and from the car without assistance on a daily basis. The renter may request that the landlord make an exception to the rule by providing a designated parking space close to his/her unit.
"Reasonable modifications" are physical changes to a building or a site. A publicly funded housing provider may be obligated to pay for reasonable modifications. Private housing providers must allow individuals with disabilities to make modifications so that the individual has full use of the residence; though they may require the individual to pay for the costs. Housing providers have the right to request that modifications be done competently and with a permit, when required. They may also require the renter to restore the property to its previous condition after tenancy.
    An example of a modification would be a request from a renter who is deaf and wishes to install a smoke detector with a visual alarm rather than the standard auditory alarm.

Where You Come In: Verification
Housing providers may require that individuals requesting an accommodation or modification provide a third party verification letter from a "qualified professional". A qualified professional could be any licensed healthcare professional or other social service provider (licensed or not) with knowledge of the individual’s limiting physical or mental condition and his/her needs that would enable the individual to overcome any barriers caused by the disability. A housing provider may not require or have access to medical records or any specifics about the individual’s disability. Because some disabilities may evoke prejudices on the part of the housing provider or neighbors, the law was crafted to prevent derogatory prejudgments, by limiting the information necessary to be disclosed.

What should be provided in a verification letter and what should be excluded? How specific do you need to be? What is "reasonable?" What are the implications for medical professionals that provide verification letters?

These are excellent questions; all of which we will explore in the next edition. Please watch for the next article or contact the Fair Housing Council of Oregon and SW Washington at (503) 223-8197 or 1-800-424-3247 (TTY) (Se habla español) or visit www.fhco.org if you need specific assistance.

For information outside Oregon and SW Washington, contact the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development at 1-800-877-0246.

This article brought to you by the Fair Housing Council of Oregon. To schedule an in-office fair housing training program or speaker for corporate or association functions, contact Diane Hess at 503/412-6000 or dhess@fhco.org.

For questions about this article or HousingConnections.org, contact Jo Becker at 503/453-4016 or jbecker@fhco.org. Please visit www.HousingConnections.org -- a free advertising for properties for sale or for rent in the Portland/Vancouver