Source: United States Department of Justice News
The Justice Department announced the filing of a lawsuit against Missouri-based LJLD LLC and Westminster Properties LLC, the owners, developers and builders of a multifamily housing complex in St. Louis, Missouri. The lawsuit alleges that these defendants failed to design and construct housing units and related facilities at the Bridgewater Residences Apartments to make them accessible to persons with disabilities in compliance with the Fair Housing Act (FHA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
The lawsuit arose from a complaint by Metropolitan St. Louis Equal Housing and Opportunity Council (EHOC) filed with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). After HUD investigated the complaint, it determined that LJLD LLC and Westminster Properties LLC violated the FHA and issued a charge of discrimination. After EHOC chose to have the matter decided in federal court, HUD referred to the matter to the Justice Department.
“For more than three decades, federal law has required multifamily housing complexes to be designed and built with accessible features,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The Department of Justice is committed to protecting the rights of people with disabilities to ensure that they have equal access to housing, including accessible parking, common areas and related facilities.”
“This lawsuit seeks changes in an apartment complex in which the visually impaired risk injury simply getting the mail,” said U.S. Attorney Sayler A. Fleming for the Eastern District of Missouri. “Wheelchair users may not be able to get into or use bathrooms, adjust their own thermostats, safely get to their patios or access the complex’s office, dog park and other amenities.”
“Builders and developers of multifamily housing complexes must adhere to the requirements of the Fair Housing Act to ensure that persons with disabilities have equal opportunity to live in these properties,” said Demetria McCain, HUD’s Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. “HUD applauds today’s action and remains committed to working with the Justice Department to vigorously enforce our nation’s fair housing laws.”
The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, alleges that the Bridgewater Residences Apartments have significant accessibility barriers including excessively sloped pedestrian routes from apartment units to the public street and to site amenities (such as the dog park, mail center, dumpster, management/leasing office); barriers to accessible parking; inaccessible bathrooms; inaccessible door hardware; and insufficient maneuvering space at entrances to common use areas that make those entrances inaccessible to many people with disabilities.
The lawsuit seeks an order (1) requiring the defendants to bring the properties into compliance with the FHA and the ADA, (2) requiring the defendants to pay monetary damages to persons harmed by the lack of accessibility, as well as civil penalties to the United States to vindicate the public interest, and (3) prohibiting the defendants from designing or constructing future residential properties in a manner that discriminates against persons with disabilities. Bridgewater V LLC, the current owner of the apartment complex, also is named in the lawsuit as a necessary party to provide access to the property for the required retrofits.
Individuals who may have been affected by the lack of accessibility at these properties should call the Civil Rights Division’s Housing Discrimination Hotline at 1-833-591-0291, press 1 for English, press 4 for housing accessibility for persons with disabilities or the design and construction of accessible housing cases, then press 7 for United States v. LJLD (Bridgewater) to leave a message, or send an email to fairhousing@usdoj.gov.
The FHA prohibits discrimination in housing based on disability, race, color, religion, national origin, sex and familial status. Among other things, it requires all multifamily housing constructed after March 13, 1991, to have basic accessibility features, including accessible routes without steps or steep slopes to all ground-floor units. Enacted in 1990, the ADA requires, among other things, that places of public accommodation – such as rental offices – at multifamily housing complexes designed and constructed for first occupancy after Jan. 26, 1993, be accessible to persons with disabilities. More information about the Civil Rights Division and the laws it enforces is available at www.usdoj.gov/crt.
A complaint is merely an allegation and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.