The function of this toolkit is to provide you with the tools essential to acknowledge the barriers that might prevent you from the complete usage and satisfaction of your home and what you can do to eliminate them.

The federal Fair Housing Act (FHA) needs residential or commercial property owners to enable sensible modifications and sensible accommodations to individuals with impairments so that they can have full use and satisfaction of the residential or commercial property where they reside. The accessibility laws under the FHA ensure that, either through structural modifications to the structure (generally described as "reasonable modifications") or modifications in rules and policies (normally described as "sensible lodgings"), people with specials needs have equal access to and satisfaction of their homes as do non-disabled individuals.

If you are an individual with a disability, you have the legal right to obtain an adjustment or accommodation to your house, if it is a sensible demand and it is essential to manage you access to and equal satisfaction of the residential or commercial property. This request can be made prior to moving into the system or whenever during your occupancy. This toolkit is created to help you assert your civil liberties and request a reasonable adjustment or a sensible lodging from your housing supplier.

This toolkit includes:

- Information about your legal rights.
- Steps that will assist you request a reasonable modification or lodging.
- Templates for writing an ask for an affordable modification/accommodation.
- How and where to turn for assistance.

Fair Housing for People with Disabilities

Everyone has a right to reasonable housing. The capability to live where one picks with dignity and without fear of discrimination is a standard ideal ensured to all individuals. 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 have the right to equal access to housing, including complete satisfaction of your housing. If you think that you, or somebody you understand, have experienced housing discrimination in Fairfax County, you can file a reasonable housing problem with OHREP, but you should do so within 365 days from the date the supposed discriminatory act happened, or when it comes to a continuing offense, from the date the supposed inequitable act ended.

What is a Special needs?

The federal Fair Housing Act specifies an impairment to include a physical or mental problems that substantially restricts one or more major life activities. Major life activities are main activities to day-to-day life, such as seeing, hearing, strolling, breathing, carrying out manual jobs, taking care of oneself, and speaking. A disability can consist of a hearing, visual, or mobility disability; a medical condition; or an emotional illness.

The Right to Fair Housing

Federal, state, and regional laws all prohibit housing discrimination versus individuals with disabilities. In specific, the federal Fair Housing Act forbids discrimination in housing on the basis of race, color, religion, nationwide origin, sex, disability, and familial status. In addition, the Fairfax County Fair Housing Act prohibits housing discrimination on the basis of elderliness (age 55 and older), marital status, source of funds, sexual preference, gender identity, and status as a veteran. Under both the federal Fair Housing Act and the Fairfax County Fair Housing Act, people with impairments are entitled to take pleasure in the very same housing opportunities as other homeowners. For instance, housing suppliers may not:

- Refuse to rent, sell, or negotiate housing.
- Set various terms, conditions, or benefits for sale or rental of a residence.
- Falsely reject that housing is available for evaluation, sale, or rental.
- Discourage an individual from looking for housing in a specific neighborhood.
- Deny access to or membership in a facility or service related to the sale of housing.
- Refuse to enable a reasonable accommodation or reasonable modification (described listed below).
- Threaten or disrupt anyone making a reasonable housing problem.
- Harass an occupant or housing candidate.
- Take any other action to otherwise make housing unavailable.

Reasonable Accommodations and Modifications

People with disabilities are entitled to sensible lodgings and sensible modifications that are required for them to delight in full use of a home.

- A sensible lodging is a modification in a guideline, policy, practice, or service in order to provide a person with a disability equivalent option and opportunity. Examples include assigning an accessible parking area to somebody with a mobility impairment or enabling a service animal in a "no family pets" building. In addition, a housing supplier can not need a family pet fee for a service animal.

- A sensible modification is a structural change that pays for an individual with a special needs complete use and enjoyment of the facility. Examples consist of setting up a ramp to an entryway door, expanding doorways, lowering countertops, and installing grab bars. Who pays? It depends. If the residential or commercial property is covered under brand-new structure ease of access requirements, the housing company may be responsible for any reasonable modification costs incurred. If the residential or commercial property is not covered, the local may be responsible for associated expenses.

Fair Housing Accessibility Requirements

Apartments and other multifamily housing first occupied after March 13, 1991, should also meet particular fundamental levels of availability. The accessibility requirements apply to all systems in structures with four or more systems that have an elevator. If a building with four or more systems has no elevator and was first inhabited after March 13, 1991, these requirements use to ground flooring systems only.

What Can a Housing Provider Ask?

Housing companies may inquire into a candidate's ability to meet tenancy requirements. This indicates that a property owner may ask whether you have adequate earnings to be able to pay the rent, whether you are willing to comply with the required guidelines (unless an affordable accommodation is made), and other concerns relating straight to tenancy. A housing company might likewise embrace and apply uniform, objective, and nondiscriminatory requirements designed to evaluate a potential occupant's credit value, such as requiring credit or criminal background checks.

If you have a disability, you can not be dealt with differently just due to the fact that you are a person with an impairment, nor can you have your housing choice limited due to the fact that of a special needs. Reasonable accommodations and affordable adjustments have to be just that-reasonable. When an individual makes a reasonable lodging or modification demand, a property owner can examine the relationship in between the demand being made and the disability. However, the person making the demand stays entitled to privacy.

Even when an individual makes an ask for a sensible accommodation or modification, the landlord is just entitled to know that a disability exists which the demand belongs to that special needs. The private making the request is not required to share the nature and complete extent of the special needs.

Questions like "Can you walk at all?"; "How did you lose your leg?"; or "How long have you needed to utilize that wheelchair?" are all unlawful. A property manager can not talk with other occupants in the structure about your impairment. Your special needs is nobody's business but your own.