The City of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $38.2 million to resolve a lawsuit that alleged it “knowingly failed to meet federal accessibility requirements” when it obtained federal grant funding for affordable housing.
The grants were awarded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and were disbursed with the goal of supporting the development and rehabilitation of multi-family housing units.
According to the grant terms, awardees must comply with federal regulations, including accessibility laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Fair Housing Act.
The laws are meant to prevent discrimination against those with disabilities by ensuring a certain percentage of properties have accessibility features for those with mobility issues and auditory or visual impairments. Municipalities that receive the federal grants are also require to maintain a current list of accessible properties and their features and make the list available to the public.
According to a United States Department of Justice news release, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of the federal government after a whistleblower came forward in 2017 to accuse the City of skirting these federal laws for more than a decade, not making the new or rehabilitated properties accessible to those with disabilities.
“The housing was not structurally accessible because of failures like slopes that were too steep, counters that were too high, and thresholds that did not permit wheelchair access,” the DOJ wrote. “The United States further alleged that the city failed to maintain a publicly available list of accessible units and their accessibility features.”
Prosecutors also alleged that the City of Los Angeles reported to the HUD every year that it was following these mandates as required by the grant terms, but did so knowing they were not actually in compliance.
“By failing to make certain that HUD-funded multifamily housing was appropriately built or rehabilitated to meet federal accessibility requirements, the city discriminated against people with disabilities,” said HUD Inspector General Rae Oliver Davis.
The settlement announced Monday resolves the lawsuit against the City, which was initially filed by an L.A. resident who uses a wheelchair and the Fair Housing Council of San Fernando Valley, a nonprofit disability rights advocacy group.
In 2020, another defendant in the lawsuit, CRA/LA, a redevelopment agency that financed and assisted in developing some of the multifamily affordable housing units, settled its share of the suit for $3.1 million.
Damon Smith, general counsel for the HUD, said the settlement shows that the federal agency and its DOJ partners are committed to protecting “the integrity of HUD’s programs and demonstrates the importance of providing accessible housing.”
“The City of Los Angeles fell far short of its responsibilities to provide HUD-funded accessible housing, but the settlement agreement provides a fresh start for HUD and the City to work collaboratively to address the City’s pressing housing needs,” Smith added.
The DOJ stressed that the settlement resolves the claims, but “there has been no determination of liability.”