2/13/2024
11 am PT / 12 pm MT / 1 pm CT / 2 pm ET
*approximate length: 45 minutes to 1 hour
Presenter: Kenneth M. Walden, Managing Attorney
The Fair Housing Act protects people with disabilities from discrimination in housing. But what does that mean? In what ways does the Act do so? What must housing providers know? This webinar will answer those questions. We will utilize hypothetical scenarios to highlight important topics including reasonable accommodations, reasonable modifications, and assistance animals.
Learning Objectives:
- How the fair housing protections for people with disabilities differ from the protections afforded to other protected classes
- How reasonable accommodations work
- How reasonable modifications work
- The current law concerning assistance animals in housing, including a new Illinois statute that became effective in January 2020
Kenneth M. Walden is the Managing Attorney for the Civil Rights Team at Access Living of Metropolitan Chicago. The Civil Rights Team represents persons with disabilities in civil rights cases under the Fair Housing Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and state and local anti-discrimination laws. Ken directs the organization’s legal work, which consists of: (a) advice, counseling, and representation to persons with disabilities who have civil rights complaints; (b) a disability-specific fair housing testing program; (c) education and outreach about disability rights laws; and (d) public policy advocacy.
For several years, Ken served as an Adjunct Professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. He taught a course on disability law.
Before joining Access Living, Ken served as Director of the Tenant Advocacy Project of the Public Justice Center (PJC) in Baltimore, Maryland. Prior to the PJC, Ken was a staff attorney for the Legal Aid Bureau in Baltimore.
Ken received his law degree, with Honors, from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1990. He earned his bachelor’s degree, with Highest Honors, from Rutgers College in 1985.