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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- An Illinois architect and housing developer will now provide accessible housing to residents with disabilities, under an agreement reached today with the Justice Department.

The agreement, filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago, resolves a lawsuit filed by the Justice Department in November 1997 alleging that Eagle Ridge II, a residential development consisting of single-family homes, town homes and condominiums in Orland Park, Illinois, violated the Fair Housing Act by not providing accessible housing units to persons with disabilities. The Eagle Ridge II development was built by the Clearview Construction Company, an Illinois corporation, and the condominium units were designed by architect Mark A. Smetana, a licensed Illinois architect.

"Today's settlement demonstrates our continued commitment to ensure that those who design and construct multi-family housing provide the accessible design features required under federal law," said Bill Lann Lee, Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. "The law's requirements are modest but their impact is significant for mobility-impaired persons seeking housing."

The Justice Department's complaint alleged that, as designed and constructed, 89 town home units and 44 condominium units in the development lacked accessibility features such asdoors wide enough for a person using a wheelchair. The units also had steps and stoops before their entrance ways preventing access by those using wheelchairs.

"The cases we have brought in Chicago have established the importance of making housing accessible to persons with disabilities," added Scott R. Lassar, United States Attorney in Chicago. "These suits have raised the awareness of those in the building industry of the accessibility requirements of the Fair Housing Act."

Under the settlement, which must be approved by the Court, Clearview and Smetana will:

• construct and design all future housing covered by the Fair Housing Act's accessibility provisions in compliance with those provisions and certify to the Justice Department that they are in compliance;

• establish a $150,000 fair housing fund that will allow owners of the 133 affected units to retrofit non-complying units within two years;

• provide compensatory damages to persons who suffered injury because the residential units were not designed or constructed as accessible to individuals with disabilities;

• train employees on the Fair Housing Act's design and construction provisions.

Under the Fair Housing Act, multi-family housing complexes with four or more units must include, among other things, accessible routes, doorways wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair, reachable thermostats and electrical outlets, bathroom walls equipped with reinforcements so that people with disabilities can install grab bars, and bathrooms and kitchens which are large enough to be usable by persons with mobility-impairments.

The case grew out of a 1996 series of audits of construction sites in Chicago area residential developments. The audits, which were performed in partnership with the John Marshall Law School Fair Housing Clinic and Access Living, a Chicago-based disability rights organization, consisted of "testers," some of whom were persons with disabilities, who posed as prospective home buyers and who inspected properties to see if they met accessibility requirements.

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