The city of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $38.2 million to settle allegations it failed to meet federal accessibility requirements when it used Housing and Urban Development grant funds for multifamily affordable housing, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Aug. 26.
The settlement resolves a 2017 whistleblower suit filed by a Los Angeles resident who uses a wheelchair, and by the Fair Housing Council of the San Fernando Valley, a nonprofit disability-rights advocacy group.
The claims resolved are allegations, and there has been no determination of liability, the Justice Department said. A “relator share”—that portion of a settlement received by a whistleblower—has not yet been determined, according to the agency.
Mayor Karen Bass’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto issued a statement saying, “The city is pleased that the matter is now behind us following the City Attorney’s Office’s hard work defending this litigation. With the settlement agreement now in place and approved by the court, the city and [the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development] can focus on working together to advance affordable and accessible housing for L.A. residents, which is so desperately needed.
“The city denies that it violated the False Claims Act. Nonetheless, we are pleased to have reached this $38.2 million settlement, particularly in light of the federal government’s initial claim that it was entitled to well over $1 billion in alleged damages,” Feldstein Soto added.
Meanwhile, Sharon Sandow of the Los Angeles Housing Department said in a statement to City News Service that the agency “is and remains deeply committed to ensuring accessibility in publicly funded housing for tenants throughout Los Angeles.”
The claim alleged that, for over a decade, the city failed to follow federal accessibility laws—including the Rehabilitation Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Fair Housing Act—when building and rehabilitating affordable multifamily properties, and failed to make its affordable multifamily housing program accessible to people with disabilities.
For example, the laws require 5 percent of all units in certain federally assisted multifamily housing to be accessible for people with mobility impairments and an additional 2 percent to be accessible for people with visual and auditory impairments, according to the Justice Department.
Recipients of these funds must also maintain a publicly available list of accessible units, detail accessibility features, and designate at least one city employee to coordinate accessibility efforts—which the Justice Department said the city did not do.
The federal government further alleged that housing developed with grant funds from the Department of Housing and Urban Development did not provide adequate accessibility features to address slopes, steep hills, counters that were too high, or wheelchair access.
“Municipalities that receive federal grant money for affordable and accessible housing must comply with federal law and honor the rights of people with disabilities,” First Assistant United States Attorney Joseph T. McNally said in a statement.
“The nearly $40 million settlement here demonstrates our commitment to ensuring municipalities receiving federal funds comply with federal law. We will continue to work with the city of Los Angeles to ensure equal access for individuals with disabilities,” McNally added.
Damon Smith, general counsel of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, said the agency determined that the city fell “far short of its responsibilities” to provide accessible housing funded by the agency. In a statement, he noted that the settlement agreement will provide a “fresh start” for the federal government and city to address the city’s “pressing housing needs.”
In 2020, the U.S. settled for $3.1 million allegations against another defendant in the lawsuit, CRA/LA, the successor of the Community Redevelopment Agency of the city of Los Angeles, a local redevelopment agency that financed and assisted in the development of multifamily affordable housing using tax and federal funds.
