The United States announced that the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania has approved a consent order resolving allegations that three defendants — Heritage Senior Living LLC; Westrum Hanover LP; and GAHC3 Bethlehem PA ILF LLC — violated the Fair Housing Act by discriminating against residents and prospective residents with disabilities at Traditions of Hanover, a senior housing apartment complex in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The lawsuit alleges that from at least 2005 to the present, defendants created and implemented a series of discriminatory tenant occupancy and eligibility policies and practices that discriminate against persons with disabilities, including requiring residents to sign a lease that imposes conditions such as requiring an initial physical assessment as a requirement of tenancy and potential eviction if a resident develops certain health conditions.
In addition, Traditions maintained policies that required residents who use wheelchairs to transfer from their wheelchairs into a dining room chair and required residents who used motorized and non-motorized wheelchairs to pay a non-refundable deposit. In addition, the complaint alleges that the defendants provide transportation as an amenity and that until 2013, that transportation was inaccessible to people who used wheelchairs, in violation of the Fair Housing Act. Under the consent order, defendants will pay a minimum of $250,000 and a maximum of $325,000 into a settlement fund to compensate residents and prospective residents who were harmed by these policies. Defendants will also pay a $55,000 civil penalty to the United States. In addition, defendants will appoint a Fair Housing Act compliance officer at Traditions and other senior living facilities, and will implement new resident policies, including a new reasonable accommodation policy and a new motorized wheelchair policy.
