Fair Housing Group Sues Developer, Owners for Building Inaccessible Luxury Buildings

The Fair Housing Justice Center, a fair housing group in New York City, has sued developer CW Realty and a group of architects and building owners for developing four luxury apartment buildings in Brooklyn that are inaccessible to people with mobility disabilities. You can read the complaint here.

The FHJC sent testers posing as ordinary renters to each of the four buildings in Brooklyn to inquire about apartments. In each visit, testers found doorways that were too narrow, thresholds that were too steep or high, and common areas, like gyms or roof decks, that could not be accessed by people in wheelchairs, among other deficiencies. One building’s website features floor plans with drawings of people in wheelchairs, despite the fact that the building is not fully accessible to people using wheelchairs.

The lawsuit also claims that the architect of one of the buildings has repeatedly failed to comply with fair housing and accessibility laws and was forced to surrender his professional certification. Indeed, that architect is a defendant in another lawsuit brought by the FHJC for similar misconduct.

Ali Frick represents the FHJC, along with co-counsel Diane Houk of Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel.