Jacksonville Area Legal Aid client has a teenage son suffering from bone cancer who is confined to a wheelchair. They rent a house without a ramp or concrete walkway from the front door to the driveway, thus making it almost impossible for the minor child to exit the house. As a result, whenever he leaves the house, one of his parents and his nurse are forced to carry him in his wheelchair to the driveway. As a result, he generally only leaves the house when he is going for treatment or other doctor’s appointments and almost never leaves the house simply to go outside or spend time with friends, even when he feels well enough to do so. The FHU requested as a reasonable modification that the client be permitted to install a ramp from the front door and pour a concrete walkway at the client’s own expense as the landlord does not receive any federal funds and thus is not require to pay for it themselves. Further, the FHU requested that money not be required to be put in escrow to remove the modifications upon move out. This request for a reasonable modification was granted and the ramp and paved walkway are currently being installed.
