JOE ZESSKI: Hello. Welcome to this edition of "ASK about the ADA," the podcast where we answer your frequently asked questions about the Americans with Disabilities Act, and sometimes other disability-related laws. On this edition of the podcast, we're going to talk about a topic that we hear a lot about at the Northeast ADA Center. Often, people have questions that relate to housing, but as you'll hear, many times, this is actually not an ADA-related issue. That being said, let's dive into it.
So here's our first question. Doesn't the ADA apply to all apartments and condominiums? Well, the answer to that is no, and in fact, you have to look very closely at how a housing is covered or not. Let's look first at Title II. And of course, Title II covers state and local government entities. So what kinds of housing might be covered by Title II?
Well, you have things like correctional facilities, group homes, dorms at state colleges and universities. You also have housing authorities, of course, as well as long-term shelters. These are examples of types of housing that might be covered or could well be covered by Title II. Now, let's look at the private sector, though. And of course, private businesses come under Title III.
There, housing is not generally covered, but there are some exceptions. For example, let's say you have an apartment complex, and the housing office for the complex is open to the public. That part of the facility, the office itself, is considered covered by Title III. However, the individual apartments in the complex are not considered to be covered by Title III.
So again, the private housing is actually not covered under Title III, and that's important to keep in mind. So understanding how the ADA applies to housing is tricky, but as you can see, often, housing is not covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act.
And now let's look at our second question. I would like to request a reserved parking space. I live in an apartment complex and I have a disability, and because of it, it makes it difficult for me to walk long distances. Our parking at the complex is on a first come, first serve basis. Doesn't the ADA require my apartment manager to give me an accessible space?
Well, if you're talking about a private apartment complex, the ADA typically does not apply to the residential parking. Under the ADA, both the apartments and the residential parking spaces would not be covered under that law. They would be covered under a different law, the Fair Housing Act, which I'll talk about in just a moment.
But in terms of the complex itself, only the areas that are open to the general public are covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act. So for example, if there's a rental office at the complex, that office and the parking associated with that particular office are going to be covered by the ADA. If an apartment complex has a pool and they open the pool to nonresidents, for example, if community groups can rent time at the pool, then that pool area is going to be considered covered by the ADA.
But let's get back to the question at hand about accessible parking. I mentioned the Fair Housing Act. The Fair Housing Act is a civil rights law that protects multiple classes, including people with disabilities. It does require that housing providers offer reasonable accommodations in their policies, practices, and procedures in order to ensure that a person with a disability has an equal opportunity to use and enjoy dwelling.
And a reasonable accommodation that is very common is for someone to have either an accessible space or a reserved space, even if typical policy is that residents only get parking on a first come, first serve basis. So again, a reasonable accommodation under the Fair Housing Act is a change in policy in order to make sure that a person with disability has that equal opportunity to enjoy their dwelling.
The Fair Housing Act also has some design and construction requirements for new multi-family dwellings and developments. If you want to learn more about the law, there's a couple places you can go to. First, you might want to look that www.hud.gov. That is for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Under HUD, their Offices of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity enforce the law.
The FHA is a complaint-driven law, and to find out how to file a housing discrimination complaint, you can search HUD's website, www.hud.gov. Or you can begin the process by calling 1-800-669-9777. If you're someone who is interested in learning more about the design requirements under the Fair Housing Act, you probably want to check out Fair Housing Accessibility first. Their website is fairhousingfirst.org, and that is an excellent resource to go to for housing construction-related questions.
Well, I hope these housing-related questions were useful and helpful to you. If you have more questions about this or other things that come under the Americans with Disabilities Act, please feel free to reach out and contact us here at the Northeast ADA Center. You can call us at 1-800-949-4232. You can visit our website, www.northeastada.org, and you can email us at Northeast ADA at cornell.edu.
Please feel free to follow us also on social media. We're on all the usual platforms. We are on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn. Just look for Northeast ADA and come follow us. Thank you for joining us today here on the podcast, and thank you to all those who've helped to make the podcast possible. Thank you to Jennifer Perry, our access specialist at the Northeast ADA, who wrote today's questions and answers.
Thank you to Grace Fairchild, our student worker, who is our producer and editor. And thank you as well to Peter Quinn of our Yang-Tan Institute's media team for doing additional editing and touch-ups on our podcast. And thank you all for listening. We appreciate you taking the time to join us, and we hope you found it useful. I'm Joe Zesski, the program manager here at the Northeast ADA Center. Let's continue the conversation.