Fight Discrimination!

Children with disabilities and their families are discriminated against quite often. The scope and reason of this article is to explain the process involved in fighting for your rights. I will attempt to give you the resources and procedures for seeking help.

My family is made up of 7 individuals, Myself, My wife, my two son's Brett and Arek and my daughters Lauren, Alissa and Amanda. I am disabled and my son Arek has classic Autism moderate/severe. My daughter Lauren has Slight mental challenges, Learning Disabilities. My wife is also affected by Learning Disabilities and A.D.D. We used to live in an apt. in the comforts of Glen Ellyn, IL. Due to financial reasons we were forced to move to a less expensive environment Canton, IL. We currently reside in the Oaklawn apartments, A Housing Authority property. We went from middle class to poor.

Our landlord has done a great job I have been told in cleaning up the projects we live in. It is like a country club compared to larger city projects. I grew up in Peoria, IL and believe me some of the projects there were downright scary. Regardless in the beginning of August our maintenance man came to change our filter on our furnace. Which was quite early in the morning and he had woke me up. He noticed a water leak from the drainage pipe from the condenser unit. He said he would be back later. Due to the fact that we (my family) had all been up very late the night before, I went back to sleep as the children were still sleeping. Sometime later early afternoon he came back and in the process of trying to fix our furnace noticed at the same time as us that my child had taken his diaper off and smeared his poop on the wall and floor and ceiling. Our child Arek is 4.5 and has Autism. He has done this as well as other sensory seeking behaviors for a long time.(broken TVs, radios, curio cabinets, collectibles etc...)It is gross but something we have to clean up daily if not more often. He told the landlord which he had to I guess even though I explained to him the situation. Told him we are going to clean it up immediately. Our landlord came to our apt not ten minutes later and had a very disgusted attitude. She came in as she demanded was her right and job and very loudly and clearly said this is "unacceptable". She then continued to sigh and puff in what appeared to be anger. I told her we should step outside as my children were around. My wife was in fact in the process of cleaning up when she arrived. I told her like I had told her before that this is something my child does and despite all our efforts to teach him he persists in this behavior. It is rather common with younger children with Autism and similar impairments. She then told us "WE WERE UNACCEPTABLE" "WE WOULD HAVE TO MOVE" "WE HAVE TO DO SUCH IN SUCH AS PARENTS AND SO ON" basically saying it was our parenting that was behind this behavior. Even though she was told it was part of his disability. She then commented on how I bring up my and my children's disabilities often. At that time I told her that because of people like her who refuse to understand let alone attempt to understand mental disorders and the behaviors associated with them that I have to bring it up. At the time I did not know what to do but I felt so upset, sad, and scared that we would be evicted. This was not the first time our landlord had been vicious she had given us grief over our dog then a cat and then cigarettes that were next to our apt. but were not ours. It was in a common area where many people pass and discard trash daily.

The next day as agreed the maintenance man came to make sure the problem with the furnace was resolved. He also checked and clearly noticed we had cleaned up our son's poop as well as more poops that he had presented us in the morning. Issue resolved right? I clearly told her to come by whenever, if it would make her sleep better at night. I told her she might see poop she might not all depends on when she came. Regardless it was our situation and we dealt with it appropriately because that is what being a good parent involves in our situation. 3 days later DCFS shows up with a number of complaints: that poop is on the wall and we don't watch our children and we leave them home alone and never let them outside. I kindly asked the lady to have a seat at the outside picnic table and asked what was going on. She agreed but told me that she had to see inside our apt. before she left.

Fact: DCFS as well as other agencies need a search warrant or a serious threat to the children to enter your house without a warrant. Despite this fact DCFS often tells people they must comply.

Regardless I explained to her the situation and that it has been resolved and that the person making the complaint knew that. My wife had joined me at that time and we answered her questions and then she interviewed my children one at a time as well as my wife. We then let her in the apt. and she looked around the entire place and stated that obviously this was unfounded and that we would receive a report in the mail. The next day the police show up and well that is another story which I wrote about in my article "Fireworks or weapons". I was charged with unlawful use of a weapon which is a class 2 felony and endangering the life and health of a child a class A misdemeanor. Both charges will be dropped in the near future as I was not guilty of neither. Anyhow an article was written in the paper about me that was not very kind (gives even me chills). It had my name address and picture. The next day my landlord hands me a 7 day eviction notice. I filed a grievance and requested her reason for the eviction.

Fact: you have the right to a grievance hearing and to see all documents and information pertaining to your eviction unless such provision is excluded from your lease.

The only information she had was the newspaper article. The hearing was scheduled for the following day which I had told I would have a hard time attending but it was not changed. Needless to say I was up late with the children who were now sick, I was also preparing my defense for the hearing. I missed it and even though they have the discretion to either schedule another date or consider me to have waived my rights to grievance. They chose the latter and I was told they had never chosen to reschedule a grievance hearing. I was told during my grievance hearing on the matter of discrimination they only need an accusation to evict me. It is at that time I asked why other people to which had been accused of sexual misconduct towards minors to put it lightly, were not evicted. They said they needed a backup and some evidence in order to evict. Well interesting as the only thing they had on me was a newspaper article which clearly states "Charges are merely an accusation. All suspects are innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law". This is how a vindictive person in the position of power can discriminate against someone. Choose to follow the laws for some and ignore the laws for others. It is in my opinion and that of many that a firework (fountain) is certainly less dangerous to society than a person who willfully shows pornographic material to children and allows her daughter to molest children.

Fact: Even if you do not know of any criminal activity or drug activity you can still be evicted if a visitor or a family member is suspected of such activity.

Why is it that other landlords do not have such rights? Granted people who are not in the government housing umbrella have leases that can be terminated without cause at all in some cases. In some cases if the tenant attempts to break the lease or leave early they can be made to pay the remainder of the lease. It is my position that people in housing "projects" should be allowed the rights of others. I know the laws were written for a good reason but often good intentions leave a devastating path behind. The laws were meant to clearly eliminate the undesirable criminal, drug and gang activity that has so plagued the poor and the "projects". It was not intended to harass or remove good people and families who have a genuine need for such housing. I consider my project "the country club" compared to other projects I have personally been in or have heard reference too. I agree that because of this law many projects have been cleaned up and made safer for the decent people living there. I also disagree with the fact that many people have been forced out for reasons that were not the intention of the power given to Housing authorities. We are all humans and we all make mistakes. For instance you might turn your music up loud and technically this is disturbing the peace. Should you and your family be made homeless because of it? You have friends over perhaps neighbors and you all sit around and have a few beers during the course of such activity you become comfortably intoxicated and may become rather loud, be it laughing or talking or screaming. This is disturbing the peace and you could become homeless because of it. Now let's say your neighbor is actually the one who has the loud music but the person that complains mistakenly thinks it is you. You could become homeless because of it. You see these are just examples of something that you or Joe blow might not like but compromise and be civil in such situations. Talk to your neighbor about the noise and try to work out a deal or agreement. Now if you see someone beating the daylights out of someone or see some serious threat in that manner then call the police and if you feel capable try to break up the situation. Know your rights and the laws you are governed by! Get enough people together and start petitioning and requesting change in such laws.

Ok that is where my story ends as of now there will be an update as things develop. Let's get down to the business of protecting your rights. Learning what to do when they are violated and getting the proper help you deserve. First for any housing discrimination contact HUD at www.hud.com they have a section on discrimination and your rights and even have an online complaint form. Know your lease and be ready to take any action as quickly as possible there are time limits on certain rights. For any work related discrimination contact The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission www.eeoc.gov they have all the information related to discrimination and what procedures to follow. Contact the American Civil Liberties Union www.aclu.com. Contact your local city, county, state representative and or write congress. If you are not embarrassed or shy contact the media they may be willing to help you. You must if possible get a lawyer usually there is a public free service in your area that handles civil matters. In Illinois it is Prairie State Legal Services www.pslegal.org. Use Google it is your friend and can help you find many resources. Now it is important to remember to document as much as possible when being discriminated against. Always have a witness with you when appropriate. Write down everything during a job interview that could be important if you feel you are being treated badly. Although many cases have been won on very little "hard proof" many have been dismissed or lost as well. Usually the person or entity discriminating against you has and will do it to others so don't be surprised if other information can be obtained by third parties. Action is the key to everything! If you just let stuff happen and do nothing about it then you will just be a victim and a statistic that is unaccounted and unnoticed. You must not be afraid to fight for your rights and stand up for yourself or family. You may win you may lose you may open a can of worms that helps hundreds if not millions more people. Many laws on the books are the direct result of one person standing up and being heard. You are not alone, my story as told above is the same as many others stories only the names and places and such are different. I only have the testimony of my wife to back me up. My landlord has only the maintenance man to back her up. It may come out that I am not the first and others may well join in and explain their situation and file as well. The director told me it was unfounded before we even began the informal hearing. If that is not bias then I do not know what is. My landlord shows a pattern of behavior towards us that should be noticeable to any judge or jury. At first I did not know what to do. I have Bi-polar, manic depressive disorder, post traumatic stress disorder and an anxiety disorder. I am on medication which certainly helps but is not magic. I am working to get back to the level of self sufficiency I once struggled to achieve and maintain. I have been forced to struggle and fight tooth and nail to learn and defend myself so that my family is not torn apart over an article in a paper. I now understand better than anyone could what situation the many people have been put in that I and you have read about in the paper or heard about in the news. I understand the situation and sadly find it to be a fact that many more victims are unreported and unknown.