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

Prcsident. National Association of Home Builders. Washington. DC. DEAR MR. STUARD: The National Association of Home Builders has raised several concerns regarding the potential Impacts of the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987 on prol)erty owners. tenants and home build ers. These concerns relate primarily to the following issues: The impact of the Act upon existing buildings (subsidized and nonsubsidlAd): the inpact of the Act upon nonhousing activities of i business predonilnately Involved in providing housing: and the definition of the term "federal financial asristance". First let Us clearly state. a business involved in providing housing would have to comply with these requirements only after tie date it receives federal financial assist.ance. 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. 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 the 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 oper. ationally separate and distinct fron the housing activities. and If the nonhousing activities receive no federal financial assistance. then such n nhousing 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 the entity that owns the subsidized housing. Several concerns have been raised regard. ing 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 actlvities. Pursuant to the Department of Housing and Urban Developments Interim regulations under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation 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. FHA and VA 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 coinmitment to ensuring that the law as interpreted in the future by courts and administrative agencies complies with the understandings set forth in this letter. Should legIslation be required to correct any Interpretation by any entities which contradicts any of these understandings. we will do our best to enact such legislation. In this context we note that tie House will soon be considering some related issues in the context of tie Fair Housing Act. o which we expect to continue to work together. In particular. the Fair Housing bill will deal with the question of retrofit requirements for handicapped accessibility. and we believe the best course of action to meet our mutual concerns will be to ensure that any agreement we reach dealing with retrofit accessibility requirements during the fair housing deliberations be made explicitly applicable to the handicapped retrofit require. ments triggered by the Civil Rights Restoration Act. Sincerely.