A vacant accessible unit must be offered first to a current resident who needs its features and second to a waiting-list applicant who needs them, before any applicant who does not

pbra.reasonable_accommodation.accessible_unit_offer_sequence · v1.0.0

Owners and managers of multifamily housing projects having accessible units must adopt suitable means to assure that information about the availability of accessible units reaches eligible individuals with disabilities, and must take reasonable nondiscriminatory steps to maximise the use of those units by eligible individuals whose disability requires the accessibility features of the particular unit. When an accessible unit becomes vacant the owner must, before offering it to an applicant without disabilities, offer it first to a current occupant of another unit in the same project or a comparable project under common control who has a disability requiring the features of the vacant unit and occupies a unit without them, and second, if no such occupant exists, to an eligible qualified applicant on the waiting list with such a disability. Where the owner does offer an accessible unit to an applicant who does not need its features, it may require the applicant to agree, and may put that agreement in the lease, to move to a non-accessible unit when one becomes available. Separately, the recipient must operate each existing housing program so that the program viewed in its entirety is readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities, and must modify housing policies and practices that would otherwise discriminate on the basis of disability. HUD Handbook 4350.3 works the sequence out. It applies to projects of five or more units, and HUD recommends smaller projects follow it as far as practicable. Where neither a current tenant nor a qualified applicant needs the features, the owner may offer the unit under its ordinary tenant selection policy and SHOULD put the move-out agreement in the lease, which should also say whether tenant or owner pays for that move; and where the household member who needed the features no longer lives in the unit, the owner should, if the lease permits, require the remaining members to move to a unit without them. An eligible family with a disabled member may NOT be prevented from accepting a suitable non-accessible unit when no accessible unit is available at the top of the waiting list, and the owner must then physically alter that unit as a reasonable accommodation unless doing so is an undue financial and administrative burden. Where an appropriate-size accessible unit is unavailable the owner may house the applicant in a LARGER accessible unit to maximise use of the features. The household must be notified whenever any unit becomes available, without regard to accessibility, and decides for itself whether a unit meets its needs. The owner may verify that an applicant is qualified for a unit restricted to a particular disability and that the applicant needs the unit's features, but may not ask the TYPE of disability. Where a household is moved to a different unit as a reasonable accommodation, the owner must pay for the move unless that would be an undue financial and administrative burden.

Confidence

high

Effective from

1988-07-11

Consequence model

agency finding with cure

Last reviewed

2026-09-02