Apart from a recent spate of actions by the Justice Department and scattered initiatives by private organizations such as the Law Project, there is little enforcement activity. Persons with disabilities in search of housing understandably avoid litigation. They want a home, not a lawsuit. When they see inaccessible housing they move on and settle for whatever they can find. As a result of these factors, flaunting the law is usually painless.
Laws sometimes work societal revolutions.
The federal laws that mandated equal opportunity for women in high school and college athletics have had just such revolutionary impact. Not so for the laws, state and federal, that are supposed to open American homes to persons with disabilities. The revolution in housing for persons with disabilities awaits a more earnest and robust national commitment that will deeply offend powerful building interests in order to assure that disability is not a factor in finding a place to live.