Date: 1988-03-22
Speaker: DALE STUARD (democrat)
Chamber: S

President. National Association of Home Builders. 15th and M Streets. NW. Washington. DC. DEAR MR. STUAtm: The National Association of Home Builders has raised several concerns regarding the potential impacts of the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987 on property owners. tenants and home builders. These concerns relate primarily to the following issues: The impact of the Act upon existing buildings (subsidized and nonsubsidized). the impact of the Act upon nonhousing activities of a business predominately involved In providing housing. and the definition of the term "federal financial assistance". First let us clearly slate that a business involved In providing housing would have to comply with these requirements only after tie (late it receives federal financial assistance. If federal financial assistance is involved there will be some expense in altering existing structures to make them accessible to handicapped persons. However. It Is not Intended that every part of every buildIng must be accessible to handicapped persons. Rather. the common areas of buildings should be accessible. There is no intention that building owners would have to undertake inordinate expenditures in order to comply with handicapped accessibility requirements. In most cases. the cost to make existing buildings accessible to handicapped persons will be no more than I cent per square foot on the average. There was also the question raised regarding tile reach of the law to nonhousing activities (e.g.. commercial and manufacturing activities) and nonsubsidized housing activities. If the nonhousing activities are conducted in a form that is legally and operatilonally separate and distinct from the housing activities. and if the nonhousIng activities receive no federal financial assistance. then such nonhousing activities are not affected by this law. Additionally. nonsubsidized housing is not affected by this law. unless owned by an entity that Is not legally and operationally separate and distinct from tile entity that owns the subsidized housing. Several concerns have been raised regarding the definition of federal financial assistance. You have raised specific concerns regarding the FHA and VA loan programs. FDIC and FSLIC Insured loans. as well as GNMA and FNMA secondary market activities. Pursuant to the Department of Housing and Urban Developments interim regulations under section 504 of the Rehabillitation Act of 1973. the term "federal financial assistance" does not Include a procurement contract or payments pursuant thereto or a contract of Insurance or guarantee. Thus. under the regulations. FHA and VA Insured or guaranteed loans would not constitute federal financial assistance. Nor would the secondary market activities of government sponsored enterprises (e.g.. FNMA or GNMA) or loans insured by FDIC or FSLIC constitute federal financial assistance. We wish to emphasize strongly our commitment to ensuring that the law as interpreted In the future by courts and administrative agencies complies with the understanding set forth In this letter. Should legIslation be required to correct any Interpretation by any entitles which contradicts any of these understandings. we will do out best to enact such legislation. In this context we note that the Senate will soon be considerIng some related Issues In the context of the Fair Housing Act. on which we expect to continue to work together. In particular. the Fair Housing Bill will deal with the question of requirements for handicapped accessibility. Including retrofit and rehabilitation requirements. and we believe the best course of action to meet our mutual concerns will be to ensure that any agreement reached dealing with accessibilIty requirements during the fair housing deliberations be made explicitly applicable to the accessibility requirements triggered by the Civil Rights Restoration Act. Sincerely.