The city of Los Angeles will pay nearly $40 million for misusing federal housing grants by creating affordable housing that was not accessible to people with disabilities, according to an announcement Monday from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The settlement is the culmination of a years-long legal fight in which federal officials accused the city of systematically violating rules requiring affordable housing built with federal grants to be accessible to people with disabilities.
The law requires that 5% of units in certain federally funded housing must be accessible to people with mobility impairments. An additional 2% of units must be accessible to people with vision and hearing impairments.
For many years, federal officials said, the city built affordable housing in ways that did not comply with standards — for example, counters were too high, slopes were too steep and thresholds did not allow wheelchair access. The city, each year, “knowingly and falsely” certified that it was in compliance when it was not, officials said.
“This settlement demonstrates that we will hold jurisdictions that receive federal grant money accountable and ensure they meet their obligations to make affordable housing accessible to people with disabilities,” Principal Deputy Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s civil division, said in a statement.
The city continues to deny violating the law, but in a statement, City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto welcomed the settlement.
“With the settlement agreement now in place and approved by the Court, the City and HUD can focus on working together to promote affordable and accessible housing for Los Angeles residents, something that is so desperately needed,” he said.
The lawsuit was first filed in 2011 by a Los Angeles resident who uses a wheelchair and the nonprofit advocacy group Fair Housing Council of San Fernando Valley. In 2017, federal officials stepped into the case and filed their own complaint.
According to that complaint, until at least May 2014 the city “failed to monitor and enforce federal accessibility laws before issuing permits, during inspections, before releasing funds to owners and developers of federally assisted multifamily housing developments, and for code enforcement purposes.”
Four years ago, federal officials reached a separate $3.1 million settlement with another defendant in the suit, CRA/LA, the successor to the city's redevelopment agency.
“In this case, HUD determined that the City of Los Angeles fell far short of its responsibilities to provide HUD-funded affordable housing, but the settlement agreement provides a fresh start for HUD and the City to work collaboratively to address the City’s urgent housing needs,” said Damon Smith, HUD’s general counsel, in a statement.
