Apartments to be retrofitted

By By Michelle E. Shaw

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

More than 200 units in three Atlanta apartment communities will be retrofitted to meet federal accessibility guidelines under a settlement announced Wednesday by the National Fair Housing Alliance.

The lawsuit, filed in 2007 by the Housing Alliance and five related groups including Metro Fair Housing Services in Atlanta, alleged that apartments developed by California-based A.G. Spanos did not meet Fair Housing Act guidelines.

The developer agreed to pay about $7.4 million to retrofit up to 12,300 apartments in 14 states.

In metro Atlanta, 234 first-floor units in Alexander at the District, Alexander at the Perimeter and The Battery at Chamblee Station will be renovated, said Foster Corbin, executive director of Metro Fair Housing Services.

Spanos will also contribute $4.2 million to a national fund over five years that will provide grants to renters and homeowners with disabilities to have work done on their own residences.

Part of the national fund will be set aside for Atlanta residents with disabilities, since not all the Spanos units in the metro area can be retrofitted, said Corbin and Shanna Smith, chief executive of the Housing Alliance.

“The A.G. Spanos Companies are proud to reach this agreement with Shanna Smith and the National Fair Housing Alliance,” said Michael Spanos, executive vice president of the development company, in a statement. A U.S. District Court judge in California approved the settlement late last year.

The accessibility issues were discovered when a team of undercover investigators working with the Fair Housing Alliance went to apartment complexes in Georgia, Florida and California posing as potential tenants or buyers, Smith said. Problems ranged from doorways too narrow for wheelchairs to light switches and thermostats out of reach of someone in a wheelchair, she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.