Feds sue Fort Valley apartment, say owners ignored accommodation needs for disabled child
A Fort Valley apartment complex has been sued by U.S. Attorney’s Office for allegedly denying a mother and her disabled child reasonable accommodations.
Indian Oaks Apartments and Russell Management Services are accused of violating the Fair Housing Act for not accommodating Sherthea Jackson and her three minor children. The lawsuit says one of her children was diagnosed with infantile neuroaxonal dystrophy, a genetic disorder that causes permanent mobility impairment, according to the lawsuit.
Jackson asked for a ground-floor apartment for better accessibility, but couldn’t get it until a new owner took over, according to the lawsuit.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office asked the court to rule that the Fort Valley apartment complex violated the Fair Housing Act through discriminatory practices. They’re also asking for Indian Oaks Apartment to take steps to make up for the discriminatory conduct against Jackson and award damages. Prosecutors are also asking for a jury trial.
Mother had request ignored for a year, feds say
Jackson moved to a three-bedroom unit on the second floor of Indian Oaks Apartments with her two oldest children while pregnant with her third child in 2018. She gave birth shortly after moving, according to the lawsuit. In 2021, she found out her youngest child’s diagnosis.
After the diagnosis, Jackson asked “at least twice a month for the next 12 months” to move to a unit on the ground floor, according to the complaint. Her third child received a specially-designed wheelchair that stayed in the apartment, a stroller attachment for Jackson’s car and a chair that could be attached to the wheelchair or stroller.
There were multiple vacant apartments on the ground floor, according to the lawsuit, and Jackson was told by apartment staff that one was being worked on for her but she was never told to move in.
By June 2022, the child was 4 years old, which meant Jackson couldn’t safely carry him up or down the stairs by herself, especially when transporting the child and the specially designed chair, according to the lawsuit.
It was so difficult for Jackson that her child had to miss his therapy services — which resulted in him being terminated as a patient, according to the lawsuit. He also lost the use of an electronic communication device he used.
Jackson’s two older children helped take care of the child, which meant that they had to miss opportunities for school activities and recreational sports, which caused sadness, depression and regret, according to the lawsuit. Jackson felt uncomfortable leaving the child with a non-family member, so she was unable to go grocery shopping, run errands, attend appointments or do other daily activities outside of the apartment, according to the lawsuit.
A new owner steps in
On August 2022, Ambling Property Investments became the new owner of the Indian Oaks Apartment while Jackson and her three children still lived in the second-floor unit. Within a few days of the sale of the property, Ambling moved Jackson and her three children into a hotel at no charge while they performed mold remediation on some of the units on the ground floor.
By November 2022, Jackson and her three children were moved into an apartment on the ground floor. As a result, Jackson and her three children were able to regularly leave the apartment to engage in general activities, attend events and take small vacations.
The lawsuit argued that, while Russell Management was the owner of the apartment complex, the company discriminated against Jackson because of the child’s disability by not having an apartment available to her. The company also refused to make reasonable accommodations for not transferring her into a ground floor unit, which “were necessary to afford Ms. Jackson and her three minor children equal opportunity to use and enjoy the dwelling,” the lawsuit argued.
“The discriminatory actions of Defendants were intentional, willful, and taken in reckless disregard of the federally protected rights of Ms. Jackson and her three minor children,” the lawsuit said.
Neither Russell Management nor Indian Oaks Apartments responded to The Telegraph’s attempts for comment before publication.
A lawsuit only represents one side of a legal argument. Russell Management and Indian Oaks Apartments have not made any legal responses in court.
