From the New York Times:

The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan has notified many prominent New York landlords that some of their buildings are not accessible to people who use wheelchairs, which would constitute discrimination under the Fair Housing Act.

Real estate industry officials say landlords may need to spend tens of millions of dollars to avoid federal lawsuits over the more than 100,000 affected apartments.

Developers and city officials say the properties comply with a city law that essentially meets the requirements of the Fair Housing Act. But the letters from the federal prosecutor say that doors, kitchens and bathrooms are not wide enough to allow a person in a wheelchair to maneuver, and that grab bars could not be installed in bathrooms because the walls had not been reinforced.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 at 7:22 am and is filed under accessibility, law, wheelchair. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.