Van Accessible Parking at Multi-Family Housing Units
Recently an individual living with a disability wrote to me requesting help with their parking situation at a high rise apartment building facility where the disabled individual lived. The individual stated that their van was designed for individuals who were disabled but their request from the landlord to have a van accessible parking space installed for their use had been denied because of the age of the facility.
FHA Design Manual Cover
This multi-family housing facility was built and first occupied in the 1970s. According to the FHA Design Manual, almost all multi-family housing facilities are subject to the laws found in the Fair Housing Act (FHA), and, to some extent, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), regardless of when they were built and/or first occupied. The cover of the FHA Design Manual is shown on the right.
According to the FHA Design Manual, page 5, the broad objective of the Fair Housing Act is to prohibit discrimination in housing because of a person’s race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, or disability. To ensure that persons with disabilities will have full use and enjoyment of their dwellings, the Fair Housing Act also includes two important provisions: one, a provision making it unlawful to refuse to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices, and services when necessary to allow the resident with a disability equal opportunity to use the property and its amenities; and two, a provision making it unlawful to refuse to permit residents with disabilities to make reasonable modifications to either their dwelling unit or to the public and common use areas, at the residents’ cost.
Regarding the cost of special modifications in new construction, builders or landlords are responsible only for meeting the design requirements specified by the Fair Housing Act. If a particular resident intends to buy a unit and needs additional modifications to meet the needs of his or her disability, then the resident may ask for such modification and the builder may not refuse. However, the resident is responsible for any extra cost that the modifications might create over and above what the original design would have cost.
FHA Design Manual, page 2.20, states, "When parking is provided on a residential site, accessible parking spaces on an accessible route must be provided for residents and visitors. Accessible parking spaces must meet the requirements for parking in ANSI 4.6 and be located on the shortest possible accessible circulation route to an accessible entrance, subject to site considerations in Chapter 1."
Furthermore, "The [FHA] Guidelines do not require nor specify the size of van-accessible access aisles. The only nationally accepted design standard that contains such a specification is the Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG), which specify that a van parking access aisle must be at least 96 inches wide and is required at sales and rental offices. See [FHADM] page 2.6." The options for van accessible parking spaces per the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design are shown below.
Van Accessible Parking Spaces Optional Designs
Finally, FHA Design Manual page 2.13, item 16, Van Parking, states, "The Guidelines do not require special van parking..." Unfortunately the FHA and ADA requirements for a van accessible parking space are not based on who owns a van that is designed for disabled individuals.
In summary, it appears that a resident at multi-family housing can request to have a van accessible parking space at a certain location, but that resident may have to pay for that installation themselves, if approved. A disabled multi-family housing resident has a right under the FHA to file a request for a reasonable accommodation in the form of a reserved parking space with their landlord, if needed because of their disability. You can read more about this HUD policy at Reasonable Accommodation .
For additional information about this subject please see The Fair Housing Act (FHA) and Accessible Parking.
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