![]() HUD regulations under the Fair Housing Act lay out clear guidelines for abating discrimination, provisioning units and adhering to design requirements. When Chicago was allotted $2 billion in HUD funding for affordable developments, it was obligated to construct accessible units and comply with legal protections. The records brought into evidence indicated near-complete failures in certain mandated practices and due diligence: chiefly in inspection, enforcement and distribution of units. Still, after legal discovery, “We were definitely surprised at the levels of noncompliance,” said Feidt. Multiple attempts by the City of Chicago’s counsel to have the case dismissed were rejected by a judge in 2019, and the suit proceeded - leading to investigations by expert witnesses that have now turned up remarkable failures.Ĭommunity members and advocates had their suspicions and could generally infer the scale of the shortage. Access Living eventually concluded that a more adversarial stance would be necessary to prod the city into instigating real changes, resulting in the 2018 suit. The situation remained intractable despite advocates’ years of cooperating with the city in efforts to facilitate housing access and improve the standard of living for Chicago’s disabled community. “We weren’t seeing this ever get solved in a way that we could see reflected in the day-to-day experience of the community members coming through our doors,” Feidt said. Speaking with Truthout, Access Living Executive Vice President Daisy Feidt noted that over her 23 years at the organization, the demand has not wavered. Progress on the matter has been scattershot at best. ![]()
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