There is much that could be said about the Fair Housing Act of 1988 and the Americans with Disabilities Act and their application
to the delivery of public services and housing assistance. We can only focus on a high-level view here. Grantees and project sponsors alike
should consult with legal counsel regarding the details of these and other applicable fair housing laws. Grantees and sponsors should also
review information available from HUD’s Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity Office at www.hud.gov. Grantees and sponsors have an “affirmative” responsibility
to ensure non-discriminatory treatment, outreach, and access to resources. This means that grantees and sponsors must pro-actively consider ways
to make their HOPWA resources available to all persons in protected classes. Most viewers will be familiar with
the basic concepts of fair housing and equal opportunity - that persons in a number of protected classes, including persons living with disabilities,
should have equal access to housing resources, services, and public accommodation. “Access” means both physical access -
think ramps, elevators, and adaptive environments - and programmatic and administrative access. What does “programmatic and administrative" access mean?
It means that the barriers to receiving HOPWA services may come in the form of administrative or program policies
that have the effect of screening protected individuals out of a program. For example, drug addiction and alcoholism
(though not current illegal substance use) can be considered a disability. A program that effectively screens out persons living with addiction
may be violating fair housing or equal opportunity laws. Similarly, a supportive housing program that screens out individuals with some forms of mental illness
may also be violating federal law and regulations. And a program that provides services in a community or among a target population
with a significant Spanish-speaking population but does not have any capacity to communicate with Spanish-only speakers
may be in violation of Fair Housing rules, if this fact discourages Spanish-speakers from applying for services.
In general, grantees and sponsors providing any type of HOPWA service - whether housing assistance or only supportive services -
should avoid asking questions about an individual’s disabilities in advance of determining eligibility for a particular HOPWA resource
in order to avoid the possibility of screening someone out based on that information. Eligibility requirements should be clearly spelled out in writing
and should avoid narrowing access to protected persons as much as possible. Finally, grantees and sponsors should have policies and procedures in place
that describe how they will respond to requests for accommodation of a disability.
For monitoring, review a provider’s eligibility requirements, policies, and procedures to see
if they might inadvertently screen out otherwise eligible persons. Review their outreach efforts, to see if they are affirmatively reaching out
to all potentially eligible individuals. Ask them if they have ever had a request for accommodation and review their responses to such requests.
Look at their policies and procedures to confirm that they included affirmative fair housing and equal opportunity statements.