Advocates for the disabled announced yesterday that 756 people are in line to share $1 million from the settlement of a Baltimore housing discrimination lawsuit.
A victims' compensation fund was established as part of a landmark 2004 settlement in a lawsuit alleging that thousands of people with disabilities were intentionally or illegally excluded from public housing. Other terms of the settlement, worth more than $100 million, include development of more than 1,000 units of public housing accessible to people with disabilities and a program to help them obtain housing.
The parties in the lawsuit - the Maryland Disability Law Center, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Housing Authority of Baltimore City - jointly filed in U.S. District Court yesterday a recommendation to compensate the 756 people. Both the law center and the justice department had sued the housing authority.
Last summer, officials mailed 40,000 notices to potential housing discrimination victims, urging them to take advantage of the compensation fund. Soup kitchens and shelters also held informational meetings about it. About 2,500 claims were filed, said Lauren Young, the disability law center's legal director.
Assuming the court approves the arrangement, each of the identified victims will receive about $1,300 sometime in the next few months, Young said.
"These payments are given to individuals in recognition that their civil rights were violated based on their disabilities," she said in a statement.
Among those recommended for compensation are people who were denied housing because they used wheelchairs, and a person who had requested grab bars and fell repeatedly in the shower.
University of Baltimore's law school is planning to offer financial counseling sessions for recipients of the money. (baltimoresun.com)
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