Hanif asks about enforcement when accommodations are refused and repeat offenders
Hanif asks what enforcement action CCHR takes when a landlord, employer, or business refuses a reasonable accommodation. Rivera says those cases move to probable cause and litigation at OATH, and repeat offenders face no pre-complaint intervention, higher civil penalties, and monitoring.
When CCHR determines that an accommodation is reasonable, but a landlord, employer, or business refuses to provide it, what enforcement action do you all take?
Yes, those are absolutely the cases that are moving forward, likely with probable cause determinations that then we have to do litigation at oath for a decision and order.
And how does CCHR handle repeat offenders of disability-based discrimination, like the Transit Authority in two separate disability settlements in the 2026 annual report,
one over bus riders with service animals and one over an employee's use of sick leave?
Is it treated as a repeat?
Are they being treated as a repeat offender?
And does that affect penalties or enforcement?
Absolutely.
When we, depending on the violation type and the number of instances, they're absolutely considered a repeat offender.
Particularly for repeat offenders, we're often, A, we will eliminate any sort of pre-complaint interventions with them.
We don't want them to think that, oh, if you're going to agree to a pre-complaint intervention, that this is just going to go away for you.
Those are the instances where we are seeking significant civil penalties, where we're going to constantly increase the imposition of those numbers until we reach the maximum, which is only set at $250,000 right now.
And that is unfortunately the cap that we have to work with in each violation.
Again, affirmative relief is going to be a big component as well in those sorts of settlements or decisions where we're seeking significant internal change.
and monitoring of those offenders.