Statement by Congressman Walter Jones on HR 2437, the

Justice in Fair Housing Enforcement Act of 1999

The Fair Housing Act requires that multi-family housing constructed for first occupancy after March 31, 1991 include certain basic features to make the unit usable by persons with disabilities.

This is a law that I support. However, this law has not been enforced in a fair manner.

Instead of concentrating its efforts on education and insuring that these standards became part of building codes, the federal government has essentially paid bounties to non-governmental organizations to find builders who are out of compliance with the law.

These selective enforcement operations are wrong. In many cases they threaten the very existence of builders who had no idea that they were out of compliance with the law. The policy of "gotcha" enforcement has resulted in far fewer units accessible to persons with disabilities than would be the case with a more rational system of education and enforcement.

The problems is that -due to a variety of reasons attributable to a number of governmental, professional, and trade organizations - the existence of these requirements was never adequately communicated to the individuals and firms actually constructing the dwellings. Builders have been simply unaware that these requirements even existed.

Builders typically comply with various federal, state, and local regulations by constructing dwellings to conform to building codes. They submit their plans to government authorities for approval prior to construction, and each stage of construction must also be inspected and approved.

If there is a requirement that they include certain basic features to make units usable by persons with disabilities, builders rely upon this process to make that requirement known. However, in most cases, nowhere in this process was the existence of these requirements revealed to builders.

Now, however, builders - who had their plans designed by professional architects, approved by state or local building authorities, in some cases approved by regional HUD offices, and many cases received HUD financing - are being pursued by the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department.

They are being threatened with hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and legal fees because it is alleged that these projects built years ago were not in compliance with this law which they had no reasonable expectation of knowing even existed.

HR 2437 does not address the efficacy of the Fair Housing Act. It does not address the value of the standards designed to make the units usable by persons with disabilities, nor does it address the issue of enforcement for dwellings permitted after the date of enactment of the bill.

It does establish that builders of previously designed and permitted multi-family dwellings that were constructed to code should not be penalized for not conforming to a law they had no reasonable expectation of knowing existed.

I believe that providing this "safe harbor" to builders is the right thing to do. I also believe that as this legislation goes forward, it should be amended to insure that in the future local building codes reflect these accessibility standards.

Such a change will benefit innocent builders, and result in more units available for the disabled.

That is the type of "win-win" situation we can all be proud of.