Los Angeles Agrees To Spend $200+ Million Over 10 Years To Settle Fair Housing Suit Involving Lack Of Accessibility For Disabled Tenants In Publicly Funded Apartment Complexes; Settlement Comes On Heels Of Deal To Shell Out $1.3 Billion Over Three Decades In Separate ADA Lawsuit That Argued That City's Crappy Sidewalks Were A Nightmare For Wheelchair Users

In Los Angeles, California, the Los Angeles Times reports:

• Los Angeles will spend more than $200 million over the next decade to settle a federal lawsuit alleging that the city failed to provide enough apartments for people with disabilities in its publicly funded housing developments.
  
  Under a deal approved Tuesday by the City Council, city officials will be required to ensure that 4,000 units are accessible to people who use wheelchairs, have hearing impairments or live with other disabilities. The city could reach that goal by building additional apartments, redesigning existing ones or demonstrating that units already built are, in fact, accessible.
  
  Michael Allen, a lawyer for three nonprofit groups that sued the city, called the agreement “the largest accessibility settlement ever reached involving affordable housing.”
  
  “It will send a strong, positive message to cities all over the country that their housing programs must be accessible,” he said.
  
  Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti endorsed the settlement, saying in a statement that the city “stands for inclusiveness and access for all.”
  
  "If we have fallen short of that commitment, we need to fix it as quickly as possible,” he said. “This settlement allows us to resolve a long-standing legal issue with a predictable level of investment. More importantly, we are working to meet the needs of our disabled community now and for decades to come.”
  
  The settlement puts Los Angeles on the hook for another costly, multi-year legal payout centering on facilities for the disabled. Last year, city lawmakers agreed to spend $1.3 billion over 30 years on sidewalk repairs — ending a lawsuit that argued broken walkways were a nightmare for wheelchair users.(1)
  
  Tuesday’s vote will end a legal challenge filed in 2012 by Independent Living Center of Southern California, Fair Housing Council of San Fernando Valley, and Communities Actively Living Independent and Free. The dispute focused on apartments that were supposed to be built for the disabled in more than 700 affordable housing projects — buildings with nearly 47,000 units — approved over nearly three decades, city officials said.
  
  The three nonprofits argued that the city and its redevelopment agency had flouted state and federal anti-discrimination laws as they provided public money to affordable housing developments. Such buildings were typically constructed by private developers or nonprofit groups and financed or otherwise assisted by the city and its redevelopment agency.
  
  Disabled residents reported going to apartment buildings that were advertised as accessible, only to find they weren’t. In some locations, apartments had doorways that were too narrow to accommodate wheelchairs, the lawsuit states. Bathrooms and kitchens lacked the room to accommodate wheelchair users.
  
  Allen said that many apartments did not meet the higher accessibility standards established for housing built with government assistance, which require additional features such as lower countertops and grab bars in bathrooms.
  
  “They were not merely technical violations,” Allen said. “They were, in every instance that we studied, significant barriers to people with disabilities using those units, and in some cases the common areas leading to them.”
  
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  The city must spend an average of $20 million annually on the program and ensure that at least 2,655 of the 4,000 units are designed for wheelchair users. The settlement will also require new affordable housing supported by the city to include a larger percentage of units for people with disabilities than is currently required.
  
  In addition to the $200 million, L.A. will also pay $4.5 million to the nonprofits that sued the city, plus up to $1 million in court costs and up to $20 million in attorneys’ fees.

For the story, see L.A. to spend more than $200 million to settle suit on housing for disabled.

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(1) See L.A. agrees to spend $1.3 billion to fix sidewalks in ADA case:

• [T]he [] agreement would resolve a lawsuit filed by attorneys for the disabled, who argued that crumbling, impassable sidewalks and other barriers prevented people in wheelchairs or others with mobility impairments from accessing public pathways in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act.
  
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  Councilman Paul Krekorian said it was a historic victory not only for people with disabilities, but also for the elderly and “anyone who is ever a pedestrian.”