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, Mo., according to a release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
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,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in the release. “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,” U.S. Attorney Sayler A. Fleming for the Eastern District of Missouri, said. “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.”
Demetria McCain, HUD’s principal deputy assistant secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, noted that 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.
“HUD applauds today’s action and remains committed to working with the Justice Department to vigorously enforce our nation’s fair housing laws,” McCain said.
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, the release said.
*A complaint is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.