Three of the 15 visitable homes on Sparks Street in Atlanta...
among the more than 500 built so far under the City Ordinance.

The most far-reaching  housing law Concrete Change knows of is the law passed in March 1998 by Parliament mandating that every new home built in the United Kingdom, must have sufficiently wide halls and interior doorways, a downstairs bathroom, one entrance without steps except in the small percentage of lots where topography prohibits, and several other access features.   

With regard to the United  States, the following paragraphs address housing law according to its application to new and renovated housing, single-family and multi-family housing.

New Single-Family Houses, Duplexes and Triplexes

       The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 covers public buildings such as government offices as well as privately owned, publicly used buildings such as stores and restaurants.   However, by and large the ADA does NOT apply to housing.   Its Title II section does apply to an extremely small portion of housing which receives certain public money such as funding from a state used to build a home on campus for a state university president.     Few other current federal or state laws require a no-step entrance in private single-family houses, duplexes or triplexes, with the exception of a very small percentage of houses built with federal funds.    For example, if a developer uses federal funds to build five or more single-family dwellings in a project, access laws require access in  5% of the homes.    This applies  even if the houses in any one project are built at scattered sites.
       Small but significant legislative victories mandating access features in private single-family homes have been won by local activists in some locales. For instance, a 1989 Florida state law requires a bathroom door width of no less than 29 inches clear passage space in every new home which has a ground-floor bathroom.
       Also, a city ordinance in Atlanta GA mandated in 1992  that all builders of new single-family dwellings duplexes or triplexes who receive any financial benefit from or through the city (such as impact fee waivers, Community Development Block Grant funds, etc.) must meet several basic access requirements, including at least one zero-step entrance and adequate interior door widths.    

New Multi-Family Housing   

The The Fair Housing Act Amendment   which became law in the United States in 1988,  is historically important  in its own  way. It mandates basic architectural access based on feasibility, not merely a percentage.

(See the separate section about  the Fair Housing Act Amendments on this website.)

Renovated Multi-Family Housing

       If a builder receives money from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) or other federal agencies to do substantial renovation of  a multi-family dwelling, a small percentage of the units must have access.  However, once that small percentage has been reached the remaining units can legally remain inaccessible, or can even be reconstructed with new stairs and new narrow doors, even in situations where omitting or removing the barriers could be accomplished easily.  Some activists are challenging the legality of this lack of access, citing the federal 504 regulations of 1973.  As with the Fair Housing Amendment, people checking out buildings in their communities for 504 compliance have also found widespread non-compliance with the required percentage of accessible units, and some are filing complaints and seeking redress.

Renovated Single-Family Houses, Duplexes and Triplexes

       Unlike multi-family renovations, it appears that no current law clearly requires any access features in single-family renovations, whether renovated with private or public funds. Again, some people believe 504, the Fair Housing Amendment, and the ADA can be interpreted to remedy this lack of access.  We will try to clarify this ambiguity as information becomes available to us.

       Even in those cases not covered by law, renovating for maximum feasible basic access (visitability) makes sense both socially and economically.  Educated common sense needs to be applied case by case.  Deciding not to ramp a specific apartment unit which has five steps is probably good policy, while pouring new steps when replacing stoops at apartments only a foot or two above grade level is definitely bad policy.

       HUD has begun to see that failing to apply visitability standards in renovations is a mistake.  Therefore they have recently begun to explicitly encourage visitability in their recent Notifications of Funding Availability (NOFA's). In other words, groups apply for federal housing money will have a better chance of being awarded the money if they take visitability into account in their proposals.

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