re: ADA laws

[Guest guest]

Dear ,

My name is Grush-Dale and I am the Advocacy Committee

chairperson for LPA. I read your message and am disturbed by your

landlord's attitude. Your situation is serious and demands immediate

attention. After reading your email, I thought that it fell under Fair

Housing issues rather than ADA laws (although the ADA does cover some of

these types of issues as well). I consulted with my husband who works

for the US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). He does a lot

of Fair Housing work and was able to give me some good information.

He recommended that you write to your landlord, requesting the removal

of the branches immediately. (Doing so in writing will help you to

establish a case later. See below.) State your concerns about safety and

the power not being dependable. We recommend that you do not try to

cover other issues in this letter. Keep to the KISS principle (Keep It

Simple Sweetie). Do not address his attitude problems or any other

issues. There will probably be time to address those at another point.

If the branches are not removed within 3-5 days, you have the right to

file a Fair Housing complaint with your local HUD office (or a local

state agency that handles fair housing complaints; they may be faster).

To find your local HUD office, you can go to their website at

www.hud.gov . If you need further assistance or would like more details,

you can email me privately at spike30@... . Good luck with

your complaint. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Sincerely,

Grush-Dale

LPA Advocacy Committee chair

spike30@...

> From: Hatheway

> dwarfismegroups

> Subject: ADA laws

> Date: Fri, Dec 29, 2000, 7:46 PM

>

>

> I have a question for anyone who can answer. My

> husband is not only a dwarf. But he's also disabled

> in many other ways. One of those being that he cannot

> get in and out of the house except by wheelchair. Our

> landlord knew this when we moved in and even allowed a

> ramp to be built in front.

> Now for my problem. We had a major ice storm.

> Unfortunately, we are surrounded by many trees.

> Needless to say, with the ice storm, we have had more

> than our share of tree branches (I'm not talking about

> twig size) fall. I'm talking about huge branches.

> There are huge branches on the ramp. If there were to

> be any emergency, my husband could not get out of the

> house safely due to these branches blocking the ramp.

> Our landlord has the attitude, when asked about

> removing the branches, " I'll move them when I get good

> and ready and have the time " .

> Does anyone know if there is anything we can do

> legally about this? This is a landlord, who has had

> this attitude when it comes to anything. Including

> fixing the toilet. I'm really concern because we've

> had several times when the electricity went off for 3

> or more hours. When this happens, we have no heat.

> Yet, I can't get my husband out to go anywhere where

> there is heat. Even though we've had people tell us

> we can come over.

> Sorry this is so long. Please if anyone knows if

> there is anything we can do legally, let me know. If

> you'd rather, you can e-mail me privately.

>

> Thanks,

>

>

>

>