ABSTRACT
There is substantial disagreement concerning how devclopers and owners of existing multi-family housing should remedy properties that have been found by a court not to meet FHA requirements. The Fair Housing Act (FHA) is not a building code ; nor does it have any legally required dimensions as to how to design an accessible building. Thus its application tends to be inconsistent . The FHA was enacted to prevent housing discrimination of people in protected classes including race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation and people with disabilities . There is disagreement among experts regarding how best to accommodate people with disabilities. This paper addresses two different approaches to remedy existing, already constructed multi-family housing: uniformly applying "safe harbors" retroactively and tailoring units to users ' specific needs. Satisfying safe harbor standards during construction ensures avoidance of FHA claims. However, since the capabilities and limitations of people with disabilities differ significantly from one person to the next, wc discuss the two approaches in their relative ability to best serve the residents ' specific and individual needs after the building has been constructed.
