Fair Housing Month: Charlotte Volunteers 'Trade Blackberrys for Toolboxes'

The Charlotte Regional Realtor Association hosted its second annual Realtors® Care Day yesterday, coinciding with both Fair Housing Month and National Volunteer Week. An initiative of the Charlotte Regional Realtor® Association Housing Opportunity Foundation, this all-day, community-wide home-repair project reaches out to homeowners with critical maintenance needs each year.

According to the Association's Web site, Realtors® Care Day was created out of a desire to help people whose financial situation has prevented them from being able to keep up with the upkeep:

"Faced with economic challenges not seen in at least a generation, many over-extended homeowners are forced to choose between paying their mortgage payment or performing basic repairs. While it is impossible to help everyone, we can make a significant impact on our community's elderly and disabled, and others living in unsafe or substandard conditions. Realtors® will be the helping hands that these homeowners desperately need."

At last year's inaugural event, the Association reports that over 600 volunteers made improvements to 33 homes, providing an estimated over $250,000 worth of home repairs and adaptive or safety modifications for elderly and disabled residents.

Return tomorrow for the twenty-fifth part of this special "Fair Housing Month" feature at Fairhousingblog.com.

LANDMARK: $7.4 Million Retrofitting Is Part of Largest Fair Housing Disability Settlement

Fair housing cases involving retrofitting come with great frustration. It's not just that the needed changes are often costly, but it's the notion that the expenses — not to mention the underlying inaccessibility problem — could have been avoided had the building's owner and architect been aware of (and taken seriously) all applicable accessibility laws.

Here's how retrofitting cases usually play out:

1. A building constructed for first occupancy after March 13, 1991 that was supposed to have been built in compliance with the Fair Housing Act's (FHA) design and construction requirements wasn't.


2. Tenants with mobility impairments who live in the building struggle to enjoy their apartment living, having difficulty with basic activities such as navigating through their apartments and accessing outlets and switches.


3. The tenants bring a fair housing complaint against the owners for violating the FHA's ban on disability-based discrimination.


4. The court finds in favor of the tenants and, in addition to assessing damages and other penalties, orders the owners to retrofit the building to get it in compliance.

On Wednesday, the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) and its member fair housing organizations announced a record settlement with California-based A.G. Spanos Companies ("Spanos"), the nation's fifth-largest housing developer.

Within three years, Spanos has agreed to retrofit 12,300 units in 82 buildings in 14 states — at an estimated cost of $7.4 million. The number of buildings would have been 123, but 41 Spanos-owned buildings have too many complications to undergo retrofitting. Instead, Spanos has agreed to commit $4.2 million over five years to a national accessibility fund, aimed at offering retrofitting grants for apartments across the United States.

On top of the retrofitting, Spanos has agreed to pay $1.325 million in attorneys' fees, $950,000 in compensatory damages, $750,000 for the establishment of local retrofit funds, $100,000 toward a national media campaign, and $40,000 for the creation of an accessibility coalition.

The settlement is considered a record for fair housing accessibility. Click here for a full summary of the settlement, courtesy of the NFHA.

Interesting to note:

• Spanos was reportedly "shocked" to learn that the buildings weren't built in compliance with the FHA's design and construction requirements. According to a report from the San Diego Union Tribune, the company claims to have hired and relied on competent architects and other professionals to ensure compliance with all applicable laws, but they apparently dropped the ball.


• Alex Spanos, who founded A.G. Spanos Construction in 1960, has owned the San Diego Chargers since 1984 and formed the Chargers Community Foundation in 1995.