Affordable housing developer Peter Fine has agreed to fix flaws in Mount Vernon and Ossining apartment buildings that impede access to disabled people.
Fine signed an agreement with the U.S. Attorney”™s Office to settle two federal Fair Housing Act lawsuits that were filed against his Atlantic Development Group in 2017 and 2019.
FHA regulations require multifamily housing built after January 1991 to be accessible to people with disabilities. The government contended that Atlantic violated the regulations in 71 buildings with more than 6,000 apartments, built from 2000 to 2019.
Entrances to some laundry rooms and community rooms, for example, have high thresholds that block people in wheelchairs. Ramps do not have handrails on both sides. Bathrooms and kitchens are too narrow to navigate easily.
Most of the buildings are in the Bronx, a dozen are in Manhattan and two are in Westchester.
The LaPorte Apartments, 203 Gramatan Ave., Mount Vernon, is a 14-story structure with 159 apartments, next to Hartley Park, downtown. It opened in 2017.
The Red Lion Apartments, 25 State St., Ossining, has 50 apartments and opened in 2013.
Atlantic stipulated that features in its buildings do not satisfy FHA guidelines.
The company has already hired design professionals associated with the United Spinal Association to survey the properties and recommend renovations.
Half of the jobs must be completed in two years, according to the settlement, and half in four years.
Atlantic must hire an inspector who will determine if the renovations were done correctly, and it must report to the government annually on the status of the work.
The company must also provide lodging and food for any tenant who is dislocated from an apartment for more than 14 hours during renovations.
Fine agreed to pay a $30,000 penalty and set up a $600,000 fund to compensate disabled people who were discouraged from living in his buildings, who were hurt at a building, who paid to make an apartment more accessible or who were discriminated against on the basis of disability.
The company must also establish procedures to ensure FHA compliance on new projects, train employees and establish accessibility policies.
Assistant federal prosecutors Li Yu, Steven Kochevar, Jacob Lillywhite and Natasha Waglow Teleanu handled the settlement for the U.S. Attorney”™s Office.
The settlement was approved Oct. 15 by U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman.
Atlantic was represented by Manhattan attorneys Christine Walz and Lynn Estes Calkins.
