The function of this toolkit is to supply you with the tools needed to acknowledge the barriers that may avoid you from the complete usage and enjoyment of your home and what you can do to eliminate them.

The federal Fair Housing Act (FHA) requires residential or commercial property owners to allow reasonable modifications and affordable accommodations to individuals with specials needs so that they can have complete use and satisfaction of the residential or commercial property where they live. The accessibility laws under the FHA make sure that, either through structural changes to the building (typically described as "reasonable adjustments") or modifications in guidelines and policies (usually referred to as "sensible accommodations"), individuals with impairments have equal access to and satisfaction of their homes as do non-disabled individuals.

If you are a person with a disability, you have the legal right to get a modification or accommodation to your dwelling, if it is a sensible request and it is essential to afford you access to and equivalent satisfaction of the residential or commercial property. This demand can be made prior to moving into the unit or any time throughout your occupancy. This toolkit is designed to help you assert your civil liberties and demand a sensible modification or a reasonable lodging from your housing provider.

This toolkit includes:

- Information about your legal rights.
- Steps that will assist you request a sensible adjustment or accommodation.
- Templates for composing an ask for an affordable modification/accommodation.
- How and where to turn for aid.

Fair Housing for People with Disabilities

Everyone has a right to fair housing. The ability to live where one selects with self-respect and without fear of discrimination is a basic ideal guaranteed to all people. The Fairfax County Office of Human Rights and Equity Programs (OHREP) enforces the Fairfax County Human Rights Ordinance and the Fairfax County Fair Housing Act, which prohibit discrimination in housing. If you are a person with an impairment, you can equal access to housing, consisting of full pleasure of your housing. If you believe that you, or someone you know, have actually experienced housing discrimination in Fairfax County, you have the right to file a fair housing grievance with OHREP, however you must do so within 365 days from the date the supposed inequitable act occurred, or when it comes to a continuing violation, from the date the supposed discriminatory act ended.

What is a Special needs?

The federal Fair Housing Act defines a disability to consist of a physical or psychological impairment that significantly limits one or more major life activities. Major life activities are main activities to everyday life, such as seeing, hearing, walking, breathing, performing manual jobs, taking care of oneself, and speaking. An impairment can include a hearing, visual, or mobility impairment; a medical condition; or an emotional disease.

The Right to Fair Housing

Federal, state, and regional laws all forbid housing discrimination versus people with impairments. In specific, the federal Fair Housing Act restricts discrimination in housing on the basis of race, color, religion, nationwide origin, sex, special needs, and familial status. In addition, the Fairfax County Fair Housing Act forbids housing discrimination on the basis of elderliness (age 55 and older), marital status, source of funds, sexual orientation, gender identity, and status as a veteran. Under both the federal Fair Housing Act and the Fairfax County Fair Housing Act, individuals with impairments are entitled to take pleasure in the same housing chances as other residents. For example, housing suppliers might not:

- Refuse to rent, offer, or work out housing.
- Set different terms, conditions, or privileges for sale or leasing of a home.
- Falsely reject that housing is readily available for inspection, sale, or rental.
- Discourage an individual from seeking housing in a specific neighborhood.
- Deny access to or membership in a facility or service related to the sale of housing.
- Refuse to permit a sensible accommodation or sensible adjustment (described listed below).
- Threaten or interfere with anybody making a fair housing problem.
- Harass a tenant or housing candidate.
- Take any other action to otherwise make housing not available.

Reasonable Accommodations and Modifications

People with impairments are entitled to reasonable accommodations and reasonable modifications that are needed for them to take pleasure in complete use of a residence.

- An affordable lodging is a change in a guideline, policy, practice, or service in order to offer a person with a disability equal option and opportunity. Examples include assigning an available parking area to somebody with a movement disability or permitting a service animal in a "no pets" structure. In addition, a housing service provider can not need a pet fee for a service animal.

- A reasonable modification is a structural change that manages a person with an impairment full use and enjoyment of the facility. Examples include setting up a ramp to an entrance door, widening doorways, reducing counter tops, and installing grab bars. Who pays? It depends. If the residential or commercial property is covered under new structure accessibility requirements, the housing company might be responsible for any sensible adjustment costs incurred. If the residential or commercial property is not covered, the homeowner may be accountable for associated expenses.

Fair Housing Accessibility Requirements

Apartments and other multifamily housing first occupied after March 13, 1991, should likewise satisfy certain fundamental levels of accessibility. The ease of access requirements apply to all systems in structures with four or more systems that have an elevator. If a structure with four or more systems has no elevator and was first occupied after March 13, 1991, these requirements use to ground flooring units just.

What Can a Housing Provider Ask?

Housing companies might explore a candidate's ability to meet occupancy requirements. This indicates that a landlord might ask whether you have enough earnings to be able to pay the rent, whether you want to abide by the required rules (unless a sensible accommodation is made), and other concerns relating directly to tenancy. A housing service provider may also adopt and apply uniform, objective, and nondiscriminatory requirements developed to examine a potential renter's credit value, such as needing credit or criminal background checks.

If you have a disability, you can not be dealt with differently even if you are an individual with a disability, nor can you have your housing choice minimal because of a special needs. Reasonable accommodations and reasonable modifications have to be simply that-reasonable. When an individual makes a reasonable lodging or modification demand, a landlord deserves to analyze the relationship between the request being made and the impairment. However, the person making the request remains entitled to privacy.

Even when a person makes an ask for an affordable accommodation or adjustment, the landlord is just entitled to understand that a disability exists which the demand relates to that disability. The specific making the request is not needed to share the nature and full extent of the disability.

Questions like "Can you walk at all?"; "How did you lose your leg?"; or "For how long have you needed to use that wheelchair?" are all unlawful. A landlord can not speak with other tenants in the building about your impairment. Your impairment is nobody's business but your own.