Tenants with disabilities who rely on D.C.’s public housing struggle to find units that meet their needs, a report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) says.
The D.C. Housing Authority (DCHA), which provides public housing in the city, has systematically failed to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), according to an Aug. 23, 2024 HUD report obtained by Street Sense. Under the ADA, entities that receive federal funding may not discriminate against people with disabilities and must provide them with equal access to programs or activities, including in public housing.
The letter is the result of an investigation spearheaded by HUD and the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO), which began in 2021. It paints a troubling picture of DCHA’s treatment of its disabled residents. With a murky accommodation request system and delays leaving tenants unable to move into accessible units, disabled residents are left in limbo, waiting for their requested accommodations.
And those accommodations aren’t always accessible, the report says. Of the sampled units DCHA claimed were Uniform Federal Accessibility Standards (UFAS) compliant, the standard used by HUD, FHEO found none of them were up to standards, according to the report. Based on the units sampled, FHEO “reasonably concludes” that many, if not all, of DCHA’s accessible units fail to meet UFAS, which puts DCHA below the number of compliant units it is required to maintain, leaving disabled residents without proper accommodations.
“DCHA remains woefully out of compliance with even its most basic obligations,” the report states. “Coming into compliance will require a substantial overhaul of its operations.”
HUD’s findings of noncompliance are nothing new for DCHA. HUD previously investigated the agency several times, placing it under receivership in the 1990s. In 2022, a HUD report knocked DCHA for unlivable units in its public housing properties and poor management of its voucher programs. While DCHA said in October the agency had addressed 75% of the 113 issues, the report makes it clear there are still unaddressed problems for the agency’s most vulnerable tenants.
“Sometimes, residents, because they do not want to end up without a place to live, will accept what is offered to them,” said Empower D.C. Housing Director Daniel del Pielago, who often works with public housing residents.
One example included in the letter is A.A., a 62-year-old disabled resident living at Benning Terrace, who is identified by her initials for her privacy. In her ADA complaint from July 2021, A.A. said she could not walk or climb stairs because she had a stroke. She requested a no-step unit and grab bars because she could not climb the stairs to her third-floor unit, the letter states.
She attached a letter from her doctor, which detailed she “is not allowed to ever climb stairs … she risks falling and potentially death… She must live in a ground floor unit.” But DCHA withdrew her accommodation request seven months later, claiming they never received a response from her doctor.
A.A. then submitted an emergency transfer request for a unit without steps, with grab bars at her toilet and bathtub, and additional space for a live-in aide on April 10, 2022, saying she had two strokes, a brain disorder, fall risk, and needed 24/7 monitoring. While DCHA approved the request two weeks later, she was placed on a transfer waiting list and still had not been provided any unit offers a year later. Instances like A.A.’s — where DCHA failed to provide reasonable accommodations for disability-related needs, issued “unnecessary” verification demands, and lost track of approved requests — are not an uncommon occurrence, the report finds.
In July 2021, the same month A.A. first requested to move, DCHA residents expressed concerns about the conditions of their homes at a public hearing. Disability rights advocates and residents of DCHA properties said it was difficult to reach administrators for help with both routine and sudden maintenance needs, and the difficulties were exacerbated for people with disabilities because of a lack of accessible housing.
From Aug. 14 to Aug. 18, 2023, FHEO investigators conducted an onsite accessibility review of 10 DCHA properties. DCHA operates 8,033 units of federal public housing and has 1,829 project-based vouchers, according to a spreadsheet DCHA provided to FHEO in October 2023. Of those units, DCHA said over 700 were UFAS mobility units, meaning the rooms include features like accessible routes, widened doorways, and reinforced walls for grab bars.
FHEO could not identify any fully compliant designated accessible mobility unit in the 33 units it visited across the properties, and flagged thousands of architectural violations across DCHA’s portfolio. In some cases, basic accessibility features such as grab bars in bathrooms or wheelchair-friendly doorways were simply missing. In others, pathways and entrances were obstructed, making it nearly impossible for residents with mobility impairments to navigate their homes. FHEO also found some people without disabilities were living in designated accessible units, and some designated accessible units were unoccupied.
Based on the sample of units FHEO surveyed, the proportion of UFAS-compliant units does not comply with HUD regulations requiring each multifamily housing development contain no less than 5% designated mobility units and an additional 2% vision/hearing units, the letter states.
“Public housing is not in good condition, and many people still make it work with what they have because they need a place to live,” said del Pielago. “Imagine having a disability or needing an accommodation and living in these conditions. It’s made worse. We need to do right by these folks and follow the law.”
Beyond physical accessibility failures, the report highlights severe delays and mismanagement in processing disability-related transfer requests. One resident, identified as M.A.B., waited more than two years for a transfer to a building with an elevator. Another tenant, P.B., who needed a unit without stairs, waited 429 days for her request to be processed. In December 2021, HUD found that while 279 tenants were on the waiting list for an accessible unit, DCHA had 174 accessible units sitting vacant.
Del Pielago said the documentation tenants need to provide for reasonable accommodations can sometimes create issues because tenants don’t clearly understand of the process and DCHA misplaces documents, meaning the authority asks tenants to submit documentation multiple times.
“It creates a whole lot of worry and takes a toll on folks going through the process because they simply can’t live where they are,” del Pielago said.
In July 2021, Street Sense reported 255 households living in DCHA properties were waiting for ADA-compliant housing, according to the agency. A year later, the District’s Office of the Attorney General sued DCHA over accessible housing violations, putting tenants who waited years for reasonable disability accommodations at the forefront of the suit.
The report also raises concerns about DCHA’s lack of internal oversight and record-keeping. Investigators found DCHA did not adequately track its accessibility features, lacked staff training on disability accommodations, and failed to maintain proper documentation of requests and approvals.
Throughout the compliance review, DCHA’s files were “incomplete,” leaving out “critical” details in tenant and reasonable accommodation files, the report states. The report also describes a harrowing third-party verification process to verify requested accommodations. HUD said DCHA is “improperly” requesting too much information related to reasonable accommodations, which hinders fulfilling requests.
“Oftentimes people aren’t believed: people have to go through a whole lot to prove they need these accommodations,” del Pielago said.
For example, M.B., a tenant living in Harvard Towers, requested hearing-accessible features like flashing warning lights for her smoke detector and doorbell, the report says. But DCHA administratively withdrew her request because she did not submit third-party verification, despite the fact the agency should have known about her disability because her address was for Deaf-REACH, an organization that provides housing exclusively to those who are deaf and hard of hearing.
About 30% of accommodation requests are administratively withdrawn, the report says. By closing requests, DCHA delayed and denied accommodation for tenants who did not submit verifications despite known disabilities.
The report outlines corrective actions DCHA must take to ensure compliance, including conducting a news assessment, hiring an independent licensed architect and a full-time ADA/504 coordinator, and implementing regular employee training.
DCHA did not return Street Sense’s request for comment about the agency’s response to HUD’s findings or officials’ progress to remedy the agency’s missteps. A spokesperson told The Washington Post in March the agency has “already begun” taking steps to improve its compliance and services to disabled tenants. She said DCHA has moved its ADA compliance under the agency’s legal office and has begun trying to hire an architect to confirm the compliance of units with accessibility standards. Del Pielago said he recognizes bringing the units into compliance takes time and money. But he said he’d like DCHA to accept accountability for its missteps.
“The housing authority has failed its tenants for a very long time,” del Pielago said. “They need to right these wrongs that have existed in the past and take it seriously.”
