United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, announced today that the United States has settled a federal Fair Housing Act (“FHA”) lawsuit against LETTIRE CONSTRUCTION CORP. (“LETTIRE”) and other parties involved in the design and construction of the Chestnut Commons rental building located in Brooklyn. Through three settlements filed in federal court (two of which were filed previously), LETTIRE and other defendants in the lawsuit have agreed to make retrofits at three rental buildings: The Tapestry located in Manhattan, the Atrium at Sumner located in Brooklyn, and Chestnut Commons located in Brooklyn. The parties further agreed to provide up to $100,000 to compensate aggrieved persons who sustained damages from inaccessible conditions at The Tapestry and Chestnut Commons, the retrofits at the Atrium at Sumner having been made prior to occupancy. The parties also agreed to pay civil penalties totaling $70,000.
The settlement with the parties who designed and constructed Chestnut Commons was approved today by U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, thereby resolving the case. On April 29, 2025, Judge Hellerstein approved a settlement with the parties who designed and constructed The Tapestry, and a settlement with the parties who designed and constructed the Atrium at Sumner.
“The Fair Housing Act is about whether people with disabilities can actually live in and move through their homes—in other words, Fair Access means just that,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. “As alleged, these buildings were constructed with barriers—high thresholds, inaccessible bathrooms—that can make daily life difficult or even impossible for those with disabilities. New Yorkers want their neighbors with disabilities to have housing they can access and use, and we will continue to enforce the law to ensure they have it. We appreciate the cooperation of Lettire and its partners in working constructively with the government and in committing to remedying these conditions.”
The FHA’s accessible design and construction provisions require multifamily housing complexes constructed after January 1991 to have basic features accessible to persons with disabilities.
According to the allegations in the Complaint, the inaccessible conditions in the buildings that LETTIRE constructed included excessively high thresholds at building entrances and entrances to common use areas, common use bathrooms that lack grab bars and pipe insulation, excessively high thresholds at entrances to individual apartments and within the apartments, and bathrooms in individual apartments that lack sufficient clear floor space for people who use wheelchairs. The Complaint alleges that these features in the common use areas of LETTIRE’s buildings, as well as in the buildings’ apartment interiors, did not meet the specifications set forth in the Fair Housing Accessibility Guidelines, Design Guidelines for Accessible/Adaptable Dwellings.
Under today’s settlement, LETTIRE, CHESTNUT COMMONS HOUSING DEVELOPMENT CORP. and MHANY MANAGEMENT, INC. agreed to make retrofits to the public and common use areas as well as the individual units at Chestnut Commons to improve accessibility. The settlement also requires CHESTNUT COMMONS HOUSING DEVELOPMENT CORP. and MHANY MANAGEMENT, INC. to establish procedures to ensure FHA compliance at its future development projects, including to retain an FHA compliance consultant to assess the design documents and conduct site visits to identify non-compliant conditions. In addition, CHESTNUT COMMONS HOUSING DEVELOPMENT CORP. and MHANY MANAGEMENT, INC agreed to institute policies and training to ensure that its employees and agents will comply with the FHA’s accessibility requirements. LETTIRE agreed to these terms in a previously approved settlement.
Aggrieved persons may be entitled to monetary compensation from the fund created through today’s settlement. Aggrieved individuals may include those who:
- Were discouraged from living at Chestnut Commons because of the lack of accessible features;
- Have been hurt in any way by the lack of accessible features at Chestnut Commons;
- Paid to have an apartment at one of Chestnut Commons made more accessible to persons with disabilities; or
- Otherwise were discriminated against on the basis of disability at Chestnut Commons as a result of inaccessible design and construction.
The Office has reached over two dozen agreements in recent years with developers and architects to remedy inaccessible housing in this District, including suits against The Durst Organization, Glenwood Management, Silverstein Properties, Related Companies, Atlantic Development, and Toll Brothers.
Any individual who may be entitled to compensation can file a claim by using the Civil Rights Complaint Form available on the United States Attorney’s Office’s website http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/civilrights.html, or by sending a written claim to:
U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York
86 Chambers Street, 3rd Floor
New York, New York 10007
Attention: Chief, Civil Rights Unit
The case is being handled by the Office’s Civil Rights Unit in the Civil Division. Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle J. Marryshow is in charge of the case.
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