Fort Lewis families sue over housing

By Jonathan Martin
Seattle Times staff reporter

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In a class-action lawsuit filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma, seven families said they are threatened with eviction and that their on-duty spouses risk career repercussions since they requested special accommodations required by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

They say they were required to give the base's property manager — a Fortune 500 firm — confidential medical records before they could move in. Some of the homes had toxic mold and dirty air ducts, and doorways and bathrooms too narrow to fit a wheelchair, according to the suit.

They said their complaints were rebuffed at a meeting with the landlord in December, which led to the lawsuit.

"This is what happens when privatization goes wrong," said Sid Wolinsky, an attorney for Disability Rights Advocates, a nonprofit law firm based in California.

A corporation formed by Equity Residential Properties of Chicago, the nation's largest publicly traded owner and manager of apartments, and Lincoln Properties of Dallas was granted a 50-year contract in 2000 to replace, repair and manage base housing. Equity, which assumed property management, disputed the lawsuit.

"We are very proud of our outstanding record of accommodating residents with disabilities at Fort Lewis and elsewhere and find the allegations in this complaint of systemic discrimination unfounded and outrageous," said company spokesman Marty McKenna. "Our work at Fort Lewis is done within the guidelines established by the U.S. Army and complies with all applicable federal and state law."

Kevin Kean, a partner with Lincoln, which is responsible for building new housing, said he hadn't heard of any problems at Fort Lewis. "This is the first I've heard about it," he said. "Unbelievable. This is serious."

The lawsuit is the first nationwide to allege disability discrimination since the Army began privatizing on-base housing in 1998, after the Department of Defense estimated that two-thirds of its 300,000 on-base housing units needed repair or replacement.

The Army hopes to have 80 percent of its housing units under private management by 2007.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the estimated 3,000 families stationed at Fort Lewis who have a disabled member, or nearly 13 percent of the base's population. That unusually high concentration is the result of the Army's practice of clustering these families near Madigan Army Medical Center, according to Wolinsky, the attorney.
 
Tina Agee, wife of a soldier, said most of the doors of her duplex are too narrow to fit the scooter she uses because of her fibromyalgia. When she requested wider doors and grab bars in a bathroom, she said she was told the modifications weren't "cost effective."

The families took a risk pressing their complaints, according to the lawsuit. In several cases, Equity employees contacted a soldier's superior, resulting in visits by base police.

Desiree Snowden, the wife of a soldier stationed in Iraq, got a doctor's note requiring a new air filter to be installed each month to fight her asthma. She said Equity employees would allow the filter to be changed just every three months, and she couldn't hire anyone to replace it more often.

Snowden, like the other spouses, said Equity's retaliation added stress to her life. "They seem to target homes when your husband is deployed," she said at a news conference yesterday.

"This behavior is not only unfair, it's unlawful and downright unpatriotic," said Victoria Ni, an attorney with the Washington, D.C.-based Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, who also is representing the families.

McKenna, spokesman for Equity, said the company's work at Fort Lewis was given high marks during a recent audit by the Pentagon. The company is on schedule to complete its renovation of base housing three years early.

Jonathan Martin: 206-464-2605 or jmartin@seattletimes.com