Photo not that of the actual client.
“Marta” has two teenagers whose medical disabilities require such substantial medical equipment that the family needs a three-bedroom apartment on the first floor. She had been on the public housing wait list for more than two years, and when she was finally offered a three-bedroom apartment, the offer was soon retracted. She was then offered a two-bedroom apartment that would not meet her family’s needs. Believing she had been taken off the public housing wait list, Marta, who speaks Spanish, reached out to JALA’s Fair Housing Unit. Staff attorney Suzanne Garrow found that the three-bedroom unit Marta had been offered was multi-level, so it would not have properly accommodated the family, and that the offer of a two-bedroom unit was an error. Finally, she learned that Marta was no longer on the waiting list because she has passed her background check and was approved for housing, pending availability. After clearing up the confusion, Garrow submitted a reasonable accommodation request to have the family placed in a three-bedroom, first-floor unit. Unfortunately, these requests were made in midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, so securing a unit that met the family’s needs proved difficult. However, Garrow persistently advocated with the Jacksonville Housing Authority on Marta’s behalf, and in early 2021 Marta and her family moved into a three-bedroom unit, where they remain stably housed.
