Oregon Family Wins Discrimination Case
An Oregon family has won a $40,000 settlement from a Portland, Oregon apartment owner and management company. Daniel and Jenny Sanchez claimed that Princeton Property Management, Inc. refused to accommodate the needs their of three-year-old autistic son. From press release from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development:
The Sanchezes alleged that Princeton Property Management, Inc., refused to grant the family’s request to move to a vacant first-floor apartment to mitigate noise complaints about their autistic son that the company received from a tenant who lived directly below the family. The family also alleged the property managers refused to renew the family’s lease, which they had in several previous years, and issued a 30-Day Termination of Tenancy Notice. The property managers also failed to act on the Sanchezes’ request to extend the termination date, forcing the family to vacate on the same day the mother gave birth to a second child.
In addition to the $40,000 payment to the Sanchezes, the owners and managers of the property will donate $2,500 to an autism group and $2,500 to a designated early childhood development center in the family’s school district. The agreement also requires employees of the management company to attend fair housing training.
We live on a second-floor condo and are considering moving to a first-floor one, so this case hits home in more than a few ways.
Tags: apartment, asd, asperger, autism, autism blog, disabilities blog, Family, family blog, noise, oregon, Parenting, pdd-nosRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Disability Rights, Living Arrangements
14 opinions for Oregon Family Wins Discrimination Case
CS
May 15, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Fantastic.
Cliff
May 15, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Oooh, other good news today. Nice.
Cliff
Karen
May 15, 2008 at 8:18 pm
What a hard situation for that family (esp the part about moving the day a child was born!) but what a lovely victory.
Mrs. C
May 15, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Oh, those poor people. I’m hoping their next place is more friendly.
Daniel
May 16, 2008 at 12:08 am
I live in a two story condo (second floor). My three-year old son is autistic. The neighbor downstairs is a rather cantankerous. She sometimes gets into these fits where she pounds on her ceiling (my floor) and slams doors because he is running around too late for her tastes.
First, when you move into the first floor of a condo, or apartment for that matter, you go into it knowing that you must learn to deal with sounds from your neighbors above. It is unreasonable to move into such a place and expect less. I have more sympathy for apartment dwellers since many may not have very much economic choices about where they live. But I have little sympathy for condo dwellers. Children run and play. It is what they do. If you can’t stand to live with children upstairs, then don’t risk purchasing a first-floor condo. If you have issues with stairs, there are plenty of options with elevators.
Second, I find it extremely difficult to get my son to sleep many nights. He is autistic with limited speech. There is not much I can do. I am not going to punish my son for being who he is just because some grinch downstairs expects silence.
Third, to punish families with autistic children for this is illegal. My neighbor has called the police a few times because my son bothered her. Guess what? It was tough luck. She could have moved to a more appropriate structure for herself when the housing market was more amenable (this has been going on for years now). She is semi-retired and owns her condo. So she could potentially find a better home, cheaper, if she really wanted given that the housing market here has declined significantly.
Sorry for the rant. But this issue really bothers me. I have an acquaintance with an autistic son and similar circumstances. I am not surprised that this issue is prevalent.
My advice to anybody is, if you are able to explain the situation of a another family living beneath, then you can feasibly reinforce your child’s behavior to not jump and make loud noises near “sleepy-time”. Otherwise, your neighbors have to learn to accommodate the disabled. It is that simple. They have to learn to live in a tight community of condo dwellers and to accept everybody’s issues.
Kristina Chew, PhD
May 16, 2008 at 1:59 am
@Daniel,
No apologies needed. We are in a similar situation: Renting a 2nd floor condo and complaints from the residents below (older, retired; Charlie–all 11 years thumps loudly).
liquid zeolite
May 16, 2008 at 3:28 am
I think the reward had more to do with the pregnancy timing issue, but I’m glad to see that the family was rewarded for the obvious discrimination.
Side note, I’ve been studying the mercury - autism - fluoride link for a few months now and remember learning that Oregon is one of the top 4 states (percentage wise) for Autism. They also have a mercury problem from 2 sources. 1) China. The mercury from China is making it’s way into Oregon’s water supply, go figure. http://research.uwb.edu/jaffegroup/publications/116400a.pdf
2) An Oregon Cement plant is by far the largest mercury polluter in the USA. http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/mercury-cement-47031007
The other top 4 states also have a mercury problem.
FWIW, I also feel fluoride is a huge player in the UH Autism rates. I’m also blaming fruits and veggies while I’m at it! http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/32731
Just a “heads up” so that maybe 1-2 lives can be helped. (Better 1-2 than nothing)
Cliff
May 16, 2008 at 3:44 am
Indeed, no need for apologies. In fact, I doubt you’ll find a more sympathetic lot than here on that count.
Cliff
Joseph
May 16, 2008 at 9:08 am
I am not surprised that this issue is prevalent.
I suspect it is as well. When I rented, I had neighbors complain. But it’s like you say, tough luck. My son has a right to live wherever he happens to live.
Andrea
May 16, 2008 at 1:28 pm
I’m a recent subscriber to your blog & I think it’s wonderful. About two years ago we had to move from a 2nd floor co-op. Our 7 year old (then 5) has Asperger’s. Between him and his younger sister, the woman downstairs was constantly livid. She would pound on the ceiling all the time. What made me really despise her is that we were there first, and I know for a fact that the co-op board informed her that there were two small children living in the apartment upstairs. So she should have had a good idea what she was signing up for. It didn’t take long for her to start complaining to the management office. They actually came in and inspected to make sure we had carpeting (which we did). Finally, we just moved and bought a townhouse. Now we just worry about the people on either side of us complaining about the noise, but they’re aware of our son’s condition and only complained to us (very nicely) once. They usually don’t say more than hello, though. Hmm…I wonder if they don’t like living next to us.
Bonnie Sayers
May 16, 2008 at 7:21 pm
We have rented a house in Los Angeles for ten years now and this is an issue I am worried about and the reason why we cannot go to an apt. I would so like to have parking instead of fighting for street placement and a laundry on site and a garbage disposal and dishwasher.
Landlord pays utilities since this is a duplex and an older couple behind us. They used to work with autistic kids and we had one dx when we came here and they knew about it. Interestingly the lady’s daughter is a few years younger than me and gives me a look always when walking past my kitchen window. I thought I hope her kid ends up with autism, and sure enough her son was dxd a few years ago.
Bonnie Sayers
May 16, 2008 at 7:22 pm
that last sentence probably sound bad, but I did not mean it in a bad way. I just thought since she had attitude toward me and did not know about my life that she should try living it by having a child on the spectrum.
They seem to be in denial and do nothing to help the boy and mock him when he is crying and having fits. It is sad to see and hear.
Jen
May 16, 2008 at 8:29 pm
I work with a boy right now who lives in a second floor condo, and while he doesn’t stomp around right now, it’s been a consideration in choosing things to work on with him. We’ve skipped stomping feet, since we didn’t want to cause any troubles with the people downstairs. In a month or so, the family will be in a house, so we can have him stomp his heart out if we want.
A Good Fence
May 18, 2008 at 12:06 pm
[…] we’re living in a (second-floor) condo now, we don’t really have a yard (we do have a parking lot, which is not exactly a […]
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