N.Y. developers settle fair housing suit

ALBANY, N.Y., Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Developers in Albany, N.Y., agreed to fines and retrofitting apartments to be accessible to settle a housing discrimination suit, federal officials said.

The U.S. Justice Department said Friday the settlement resulting from a federal court ruling that the four developers violated the Fair Housing Act by not making several Albany-area apartment complexes accessible to disabled people.

"With this settlement, persons in wheelchairs will be able to enter the doors of their homes, reach their thermostats, and move around in their kitchens and bathrooms," Grace Chung Becker, acting assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, said in a news release. "This settlement will open up 362 more apartments to persons with disabilities."

The government sued to enforce the Fair Housing Act provision requiring multifamily dwellings be designed to be accessible to physically disabled people. In 2007, a federal court found the defendants failed to install accessible entrances, bathrooms, kitchens, thermostats within the reach of wheelchair-bound people and accessible pedestrian walkways.

Besides retrofitting their buildings and apartments, the defendant agreed to pay $155,000 in damages to persons identified as having been harmed by these inaccessible features, and $20,000 in civil penalties to the government.