On May 20, 2026, after eight years of litigation against the City of Chicago, Relman Colfax announced the settlement of one of the largest accessible affordable housing matters in the country’s history and systemic relief that will benefit Chicagoans with disabilities for generations to come. This resolution reminds cities across the nation that their failure to comply with federal accessibility obligations may lead to significant legal and financial exposure.
The agreement requires the City of Chicago to identify, build, or rehabilitate thousands of units to comply with federal accessibility standards, develop policies to prevent future civil rights violations, and pay damages for interfering with Access Living’s mission of promoting full community integration for Chicagoans with disabilities.
Prior to her death in 2019, Access Living’s founding director, Marca Bristo, asked Relman Colfax to investigate–and later litigate–claims that Chicago violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act and the Fair Housing Act for more than three decades in failing to enforce accessibility requirements in the affordable housing portfolio it funded. The firm filed a lawsuit in federal court on May 13, 2018, alleging that since 1988, the City directed hundreds of millions of dollars of federal funding to private developers to create an Affordable Rental Housing Program (with more than 50,000 units) without ensuring that housing was accessible to Chicagoans with disabilities.
Over the last several years, Access Living has received tens of thousands of inquiries from consumers seeking accessible, affordable housing. After many years of advocating for more such housing and assisting people with disabilities to find the relatively few available units, Access Living began an investigation to determine whether the City was complying with its obligations under federal accessibility laws. That investigation confirmed that the City lacks adequate safeguards to ensure that the rental properties built with City assistance include required accessibility features or that accessible units are reserved for people with disabilities.
At multiple properties in the Affordable Rental Housing Program, Access Living found significant barriers to accessibility, including front entrances with steps or other barriers blocking wheelchair access, doors that are too narrow for wheelchair passage, and kitchens and bathrooms that were too small for wheelchair users or where appliances and facilities were unusable by them. The complaint details how, because of the City’s noncompliance, low-income Chicagoans with disabilities struggle to find adequate housing and are often forced to live on the street, in their cars, in nursing homes, in homeless shelters, or in other inadequate and dangerous housing. The lawsuit requests that the City bring all developments in the Affordable Rental Housing Program into full compliance with federal law and to put in place policies and practices to provide meaningful access to the Program for individuals with disabilities.
Discovery revealed serious accessible barriers in all of the developments examined by Access Living’s architectural accessibility expert. Another expert opined that the City had no mechanisms in place to ensure that units were built in compliance with federal accessibility requirements or that accessible units were reserved for people with disabilities.
During the litigation, the City admitted it did not go on-site to inspect accessibility compliance before issuing permits, did not keep or publicize the addresses of accessible housing units and did not take a single enforcement action against a private owner for failing to build and maintain accessible housing.
Despite extensive evidence that the Program is inaccessible to people with disabilities, the City filed a summary judgment motion on September 29, 2023, claiming that it had no liability because it did not own or operate the buildings. Access Living filed an opposition brief on November 17, 2023, rebutting all of the City’s claims. On December 12, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice submitted a Statement of Interest, flatly rejecting the City’s arguments and confirming that “Chicago has the authority, obligation, and ability to ensure that the private developers with whom it contracts provide affordable housing that is accessible to individuals with disabilities.”
On September 30, 2024, U.S. District Court Judge Edmond E. Chang denied the City of Chicago’s summary judgment motion in its entirety, rejecting all of the City’s defenses in a massive case brought by Access Living of Metropolitan Chicago challenging the City’s failure to ensure that City-funded affordable housing units are accessible to people with disabilities. The opinion is perhaps the first time a federal court has held that a city’s entire affordable rental housing program must comply with the federal accessibility requirements of the ADA, Section 504 and the FHA.
Judge Chang’s opinion made clear that “the City has a regulatory obligation to ensure that the private developments [funded by the City] comply with federal accessibility laws,” including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (Section 504)—which applies to recipients of federal funds—and the Fair Housing Act (FHA). In its motion, the City sought to escape liability because it was not the owner, operator or property manager of any of the housing developments. Rejecting those arguments, Judge Chang pointed out that if Chicago “could evade liability by simply placing the burden on third parties with which [it] enters into a contract, then [the federal accessibility laws] would lose much of their force.”
Settlement discussion between Relman Colfax and the City began after this decision. The final agreement on May 20, 2026 followed more than eight years of litigation through three mayoral administrations, and lengthy settlement negotiations that stretched over a year.
The agreement requires the City of Chicago to identify, build, or rehabilitate 2,800 accessible units, develop policies to prevent future accessibility violations, and pay damages for frustrating Access Living’s mission of promoting full community integration for Chicagoans with disabilities. Once the terms of the settlement are incorporated into a judgment by U.S. District Court Judge Edmond E. Chang, these policies will be enforceable in more than 40,000 units throughout the city. The Parties will jointly select a neutral accessibility consultant to ensure the units comply with accessibility standards and a Court-appointed Monitor will oversee implementation of the settlement terms.
Further, the City of Chicago must implement policies to ensure that all city-funded housing is operated in compliance with accessibility requirements. Those Policies include how units are to be marketed and filled, how to manage waiting lists and transfers for disability reasons, consideration of reasonable accommodations, handling assistance animals, communication processes and grievance procedures.
The City will also pay $2,250,000 in damages to Access Living related to the frustration of its core mission. Relman Colfax will ask Judge Chang to award reasonable attorneys’ fees and expenses accrued during the litigation and settlement discussions.
This resolution mirrors the 2016 settlement of similar litigation by Relman Colfax on behalf of disability advocacy organizations against the City of Los Angeles. The Firm hopes the outcomes of Access Living of Metropolitan Chicago v. City of Chicago and Independent Living Center of Southern California v. City of Los Angeles, two of the largest accessible affordable housing settlements in the nation’s history, incentivizes other large cities to take stock of their own accessibility compliance.
This resolution can now serve as a catalyst that sparks change for disability justice and fair housing advocates seeking to enforce change.
The litigation team consists of Michael Allen, Valerie Comenencia Ortiz, Soohyun Choi, and Jennifer Klar, with paralegal assistance from Taylor Gaskins, Jake Hogan, and Tess Harmon.
Case Caption
Access Living of Metropolitan Chicago v. City of Chicago, No. 1:18-cv-03399 (N.D. Ill.)