ACCESSIBILITY SERVICES:
United Spinal Begins HUD Grant Implementation
With the start of the new year, our Accessibility Services group began fulfilling the requirements of a $99,960 Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Fair Housing Education and Outreach grant. Our training partner for this grant is the International Codes Council, which develops and administers the International Building Code. The purpose of this effort is to train design professionals and building officials in certain jurisdictions throughout the country where the local code for newly constructed multi-family housing complexes is less restrictive than the accessible design requirements of the Fair Housing Act.
This grant is necessary because the Fair Housing Act is a federal law that must be followed regardless of local building code requirements (you can read more about the 1988 amendments to this act that added protections based on disability in the Publications section of www.unitedspinal.org); and, the International Building Code, 2003 edition, is the only Fair Housing Act “safe harbor” model code in the United States to be designated by HUD as meeting or exceeding the Act’s Accessibility Guidelines.
Trainings will take place throughout 2006 in New York, Illinois, Texas, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia. United Spinal believes that the true outcome of this grant will be the construction of more accessible multi-family housing units in these jurisdictions in the years ahead.
“Trading Places,” Philadelphia Style
Remember that Eddie Murphy flick of some years ago, set in Philadelphia and titled Trading Places? Well, if he has his way, City Councilman Frank DiCicco may call a 2006 bill he is pushing, “Trading Spaces” . . . that is, reserved accessible parking spaces.
DiCicco introduced a bill in November 2005 that would remove almost half of the reserved accessible parking spaces in the downtown area, apparently to free up parking areas for mopeds and motorcycles. This measure would undo a common sense system of reserved accessible parking in the city of Brotherly Love which United Spinal helped to develop several years ago to reduce the abuse of accessible parking placards by nondisabled drivers at meters in Center City.
The current accessible downtown parking system reserves curbside space on each side of every “one hundred” block where there is metered parking. Each space is equipped with an accessible parking meter that can be used by drivers with disabilities. Councilman DiCicco’s bill would eliminate the reserved curbside spaces on Center City odd-numbered streets.
In a letter to the Councilman’s office, United Spinal Compliance Specialist Jennifer Perry questioned the validity of a survey of the use of these reserved accessible spaces conducted by the city Parking Authority, remarking that our Philadelphia office receives complaints that they are not available enough. Perry further informed DiCicco that “diminishing the accessibility of a program that is funded by an entity covered under Title II of the ADA is a violation of the law.”
Stay tuned. Near press time, Perry informed Action that the Councilman plans to try to bring his bill to the floor this month for a vote.
