Article Courtesy of The Sun Sentinel
By Brittany Wallman
Published June 10, 2011
On behalf of the federal government, Broward County may sue an over-55 condominium that tried to evict a younger man who says he is disabled.
Broward County government is poised to sue a 55-and-older condominium in Coconut Creek’s Wynmoor community for trying to evict a younger man.
If county commissioners agree on Tuesday, the county’s attorneys would have permission to file suit in federal court against Portofino Isle, arguing it shouldn’t have tried to evict 50-year-old Scott Spector. He’s disabled, the county argues, and must be given permission to remain.
Spector said “two guys with hammers tried to kill me over a cup of coffee” many years ago in New York City, causing permanent mental and physical disabilities.
Since he asserted his right to live in the condo as a disabled person, he said, the condo president and others have screamed and yelled at him, set up a surveillance camera pointed at his door and sent him threatening letters. The condo filed an eviction action against him, as well.
“These are the type of animals I deal with,” Spector said Monday.
The county’s suit will seek assurance Spector can remain, plus damages for Spector and attorney’s fees for the county, among other things.
Portofino attorney Mark Bogen said the condo has backed off the eviction, though he acknowledged that nothing to that effect has been put in writing.
He said Spector was not harassed or mistreated and isn’t entitled to a “penny” of damages. He said Portofino was merely defending its 55-and-older status against possible fraud.
The first medical documentation Spector provided was from a chiropractor, Bogen noted, even though the disability is a brain injury.
“We’re not going to be extorted for money for doing our job,” Bogen said.
Spector moved in when he was 37, but that was fine, because his grandmother lived there, too. When she died two years ago, the condo took action to try to move him out. That’s when he alerted the condo to his disability.
One of his doctors wrote that Spector would “not be able to survive on his own” if evicted and might have suicidal thoughts.
His chiropractor wrote that this was a matter of “life and death” for him.
Spector originally complained to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, defender of the federal Fair Housing Act, which gives disabled people the right to have a “reasonable accommodation” in housing. In Broward, that federal agency’s housing cases are handled by the county, and that’s where Spector’s case landed.
The cost is borne, though, by the federal government.
Broward County’s lawyers investigated Spector’s case and determined the condo violated federal law as well as the county’s Human Rights Act “by denying complainant a reasonable accommodation because of his disabilities and coercing, intimidating, threatening or interfering” with his attempt to exercise his rights.
Broward County went to court just last month to sue another Broward condo, Ventnor H. Condominium Association in Deerfield Beach, part of Century Village, for alleged discrimination against a woman who lives there with a Chihuahua.
The condo has a rule against pets, but the county argues in that suit that Phyllis Schleifer is emotionally disabled and needs the pet for comfort.
That case is also supported with federal dollars as part of the county’s agreement to handle complaints typically handled by HUD.
If county commissioners agree on Tuesday, the county’s attorneys would have permission to file suit in federal court against Portofino Isle, arguing it shouldn’t have tried to evict 50-year-old Scott Spector. He’s disabled, the county argues, and must be given permission to remain.
Spector said “two guys with hammers tried to kill me over a cup of coffee” many years ago in New York City, causing permanent mental and physical disabilities.
Since he asserted his right to live in the condo as a disabled person, he said, the condo president and others have screamed and yelled at him, set up a surveillance camera pointed at his door and sent him threatening letters. The condo filed an eviction action against him, as well.
“These are the type of animals I deal with,” Spector said Monday.
The county’s suit will seek assurance Spector can remain, plus damages for Spector and attorney’s fees for the county, among other things.
Portofino attorney Mark Bogen said the condo has backed off the eviction, though he acknowledged that nothing to that effect has been put in writing.
He said Spector was not harassed or mistreated and isn’t entitled to a “penny” of damages. He said Portofino was merely defending its 55-and-older status against possible fraud.
The first medical documentation Spector provided was from a chiropractor, Bogen noted, even though the disability is a brain injury.
“We’re not going to be extorted for money for doing our job,” Bogen said.
Spector moved in when he was 37, but that was fine, because his grandmother lived there, too. When she died two years ago, the condo took action to try to move him out. That’s when he alerted the condo to his disability.
One of his doctors wrote that Spector would “not be able to survive on his own” if evicted and might have suicidal thoughts.
His chiropractor wrote that this was a matter of “life and death” for him.
Spector originally complained to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, defender of the federal Fair Housing Act, which gives disabled people the right to have a “reasonable accommodation” in housing. In Broward, that federal agency’s housing cases are handled by the county, and that’s where Spector’s case landed.
The cost is borne, though, by the federal government.
Broward County’s lawyers investigated Spector’s case and determined the condo violated federal law as well as the county’s Human Rights Act “by denying complainant a reasonable accommodation because of his disabilities and coercing, intimidating, threatening or interfering” with his attempt to exercise his rights.
Broward County went to court just last month to sue another Broward condo, Ventnor H. Condominium Association in Deerfield Beach, part of Century Village, for alleged discrimination against a woman who lives there with a Chihuahua.
The condo has a rule against pets, but the county argues in that suit that Phyllis Schleifer is emotionally disabled and needs the pet for comfort.
That case is also supported with federal dollars as part of the county’s agreement to handle complaints typically handled by HUD.
