Legal Question in Disability Law in Illinois

My husband and I applied for "Government Housing",where your rent is based on your income. The main reason we applied, was due to my husbands disability. He is on SSDI, and is permanatley disabled. These particular apts. are handi-cap accessible, and he needs this. Our app.was denied only for our failed credit check. However in the last 4 yrs. at our house now, we have never been late on our rent. Granted our credit rating is pretty bad, but do we have rights as far as him needing this accessible apt.? He can no longer make it to our bathroom to have a bath, for instance. It seems there would be exeptions in my husbands situation. Can they actually deny us?


Asked on 3/03/10, 6:04 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Stephen Messutta

If you're talking about traditional "Section 8" housing, below is Section 982.307 of the federal Code of Federal Regulations (24 CFR Part 982) that governs the program. It is the section on "Tenant Screening". Landlords ("owners") do have the right to screen tenants like anyone else who might want to rent (within specified limits). A "credit check" may include additional information about your history of paying utilities, whether a rental unit previously occupied was left damaged....and as the rule states "compliance with other essential conditions of tenancy." There are prohibitions against discrimination, but there may be no way to tell if the landlord has negative information about you. However if there is an error about your information, you certainly should see about correcting it. If you haven't done that, I would start there. But landlords still have a fair amount of control over the people to whom they rent.

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/get-cfr.cgi?TITLE=24&PART=982&SECTION=307&YEAR=2000&YEAR=2000&TYPE=PDF

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Answered on 3/10/10, 12:43 pm


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