April 22, 2021

U.S. Attorney’s Office Files Discrimination Lawsuit Against Chicopee Housing Authority

BY Dan Bahls, Community Legal Aid Staff Attorneydbahls@cla-ma.org / (413) 686 - 9023

Community Legal Aid, the non-profit organization that provides free legal services to low-income and elderly residents of Central and Western Massachusetts, represents a tenant on whose behalf the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts filed a lawsuit earlier this week alleging that the Chicopee Housing Authority (CHA) and its Executive Director, Monica Blazic (Blazic), violated the Fair Housing Act based on disability.

The tenant has been a CHA resident at a federally-funded property since 2010. The complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office alleges that the CHA and Blazic violated the Fair Housing Act by failing to allow the tenant to transfer to a first floor or elevator accessible unit to accommodate her disability. The tenant has end-stage renal disease and, without the transfer to another unit, has been unable to receive daily in-home dialysis. The complaint alleges that the tenant applied for a transfer based on her disability in 2017, and while CHA has offered 10 vacant apartments to other individuals, the tenant has still not been offered an apartment that meets her needs.

Daniel Bahls, Staff Attorney in the Housing Unit at Community Legal Aid, said, “The Housing Authority’s disregard of fair housing law has led to a multi-year delay in our client’s receipt of life-saving medical treatment. We are happy to have the support of the United States Attorney’s Office in ensuring that Chicopee Housing Authority and its executive director begin to comply with their legal obligations toward tenants with disabilities.”

The case is the fifth complaint Community Legal Aid has handled recently against CHA and Blazic. The previous clients sought help from Community Legal Aid when faced with an ongoing pattern of discrimination on the grounds of disability, including a refusal to accommodate disabilities, as well as discrimination on the grounds of race and national origin. Under the terms of an agreement between CHA, Blazic, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2020 to settle the prior cases, CHA agreed to restructure the way it handles requests for accommodations by tenants with disabilities and provide anti-discrimination training to its entire staff.

The current case was originally investigated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which, in March 2021, issued a charge against the CHA and Blazic after finding that there was reasonable cause of discrimination. The tenant elected to have the charge decided in federal court, authorizing the U.S. Attorney’s Office to file suit. Now being handled by the Civil Rights Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the lawsuit seeks entry of an order requiring the defendants to accommodate the tenant’s disability, pay the tenant monetary damages, and cease discrimination against any tenant based upon disability.

Initially passed in 1968, the Fair Housing Act prohibits housing discrimination on the grounds of disability, race, color, religion, sex and national origin. Massachusetts also has a fair housing act, which adds additional protection against discrimination on the grounds of familial status, source of income, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, and veteran or active military status.

About Community Legal Aid:
Community Legal Aid provides free civil legal services to the low-income and elderly residents of the five counties of Western and Central Massachusetts (Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire, and Worcester), and maintains offices in Worcester, Fitchburg, Springfield, Northampton, and Pittsfield. CLA works to assure fairness for all in the justice system, protecting homes, livelihoods, health and families. For more information, please visit www.communitylegal.org.