July - August 1999

Cover

This issue includes the following articles: SSI and Family Law, Discriminatory Agricultural Lending, challenging fees in mobile home park lot rentals and reasonable accomodations as tool to preserve rights of tenants with disabilities.

 
  • Using Reasonable Accommodations to Preserve Rights of Tenants with Disabilities

    Probably few if any public housing providers and private landlords set out to make their dwellings unavailable to persons with disabilities. However, a housing provider's refusal to "accommodate" persons who because of disability may find it difficult to apply for and keep housing has the same result. The Fair Housing Act offers advocates a powerful opportunity to help applicants and tenants with disabilities secure housing—which in turn may help afford such persons a more stable base from which to enter into and participate in community life.

    By Sherry Trafford

  • Supplemental Security Income and the Family Law Attorney: Using Creative Alimony, Child Support, and Property Settlements to Maximize Supplemental Security Income and Medicaid

    Family law attorneys must know basic Supplemental Security Income benefit rules to represent competently the interests of disabled clients who are expected to benefit from alimony, child support, or any other cash or property settlements resulting from a divorce or related action. When arranging such settlements, attorneys should consider creative resolutions in order to maximize the amount of benefits to which their clients may be entitled.

    By James R. Sheldon Jr. and Diana M. Straube

  • Discrimination in Agricultural Lending

    Appealing the U.S. Department of Agriculture's denial of loan application or using the Equal Credit Opportunity Act may help farmers who are discriminated against survive in an agricultural world that is highly sensitive to the availability of credit and vulnerable for reasons of race or gender.

    By Stephen Carpenter

  • Challenging Entrance and Transfer Fees in Mobile Home Park Lot Rentals

    The rising price of housing has made mobile homes the only viable alternative for homeownership by some low-income consumers. Due to their mixed status as owner/tenants, the nonmobility of most mobile homes, and the market power of park owners, people who live in mobile homes are often subject to abuses such as entrance or transfer fees. Advocates can use consumer protection laws and the process model of business to evaluate and challenge unfair and oppressive mobile home park fees.

    By Roger D. Colton and Stephen D. Colton

  • Case Reports

  • Case Table

  • Specialized Litigation and Support Centers