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TRENTON -- The Division
on Civil Rights announced today that it
has issued Findings of Probable Cause in
two different cases involving disability-related
housing discrimination – one involving
a private landlord who refused to allow
a LINK transportation vehicle into her driveway
to pick up a disabled tenant for medical
treatment, the other involving a condominium
association that refused to install access
ramps as an alternative to steps in a common
area.
“The allegations contained
in these cases are disturbing, because they
suggest a form of ‘second citizenship’
experienced by persons with disabilities.
It is important that landlords and condominium
associations understand their responsibility
under the law to make reasonable accommodation
for persons with disabilities, and that
they recognize the State takes disability-related
discrimination very seriously,” said
Division on Civil Rights Director J. Frank
Vespa-Papaleo.
One of the Findings of Probable
Cause involves Glenn Gordon, a tenant with
a disability who signed a lease to rent
a cottage from homeowner Doris Milnes in
Flemington, Hunterdon County, for $950 per
month from May 1, 2007 through April 30,
2008. Gordon suffers from an uncommon connective-tissue
disease and, as a result, has difficulty
with movement and mobility. In a complaint
filed with the Division in February 2008,
landlord Milnes was accused of discriminating
against Gordon by refusing to allow a LINK
vehicle—used to transport persons
with disabilities--to traverse her approximately-1,500-foot-long
driveway to pick him up for regular treatment
at Hunterdon Medical Center. The Complaint
also charged that Milnes forbid Gordon to
ride his motorized scooter on the driveway
to meet the LINK vehicle out on the main
road.
-more-
According to the Finding of Probable Cause,
Milnes also rejected efforts by the Hunterdon
County Department of Human Services, administrator
of LINK, to negotiate a solution. For example,
Milnes rejected the county’s request
that she allow a smaller LINK vehicle to
pick up Gordon. In a December 6, 2007 letter
to Gordon, Milnes advised that she felt
it was unsafe for him to continue living
in her rental unit, and that he should consider
her letter a notice to vacate. Owing to
what the Finding of Probable Cause describes
as an “intolerable” transportation
issue, Gordon was eventually forced to leave
the rental home prior to his lease expiring.
Milnes told Division investigators that
a LINK vehicle of any size would damage
drainage pipes located under her driveway.
She also claimed that one LINK vehicle attempting
to pick up Gordon in the past had been stranded
in the mud and required towing because there
was not sufficient space in her driveway.
Milnes also indicated she was fearful that
Gordon might tip and fall off his motorized
scooter if he drove it in her driveway.
“Mrs. Milnes failed
in her obligation to engage in a good-faith
effort” to make a reasonable accommodation
for her disabled tenant, according to the
Finding of Probable Cause, thereby violating
Gordon’s civil rights.
The other Finding of Probable
Cause involves refusal of the Condominium
Association at Covered Bridge Condominiums
in Manalapan, Monmouth County, to install
access ramps. The case began with resident
Shirley Edwab, who suffers from neuroposy
in both legs and uses a wheelchair and walker.
In 2006, Edwab and her husband asked the
Condominium Association to install a ramp
in a common area to allow safer access to
a parking lot for her and other residents
with disabilities. In June 2006, the Association
approved construction of two small concrete
ramps to allow access to the parking lot
serving Edwab’s building, as well
as a neighboring building in which several
other residents with disabilities lived.
A ramp was actually completed and used for
a short period. However, it was removed
after Manalapan Township officials advised
that it was not designed according to codes
pertaining to barrier-free construction.
The condominium association never replaced
the faulty ramp, and the planned second
ramp was never built. A July 30, 2007 letter
from the Association to Covered Bridge residents
claimed the Association had no legal responsibility
to install ramps. The letter advised that
residents were free to have a code-compliant
ramp built at their own expense. The Edwabs
filed a formal complaint with the Division
on Civil Rights in September 2007. Director
Vespa-Papaleo subsequently joined the Edwab’s
complaint on behalf of the state, finding
that the Association’s refusal to
install an appropriate ramp and requirement
that residents either pay for it or do without
violated fair housing laws.
A
Finding of Probable Cause does not resolve
a civil rights complaint. Rather, it means
the state has concluded its preliminary
investigation and determined there is sufficient
evidence to support a reasonable suspicion
the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination
(LAD) has been violated.
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