Mobility impairments resulting from a disability can make parking a major issue for tenants. Lack of sufficient parking at a manageable distance can create a significant barrier to a person’s use and enjoyment of their dwelling.

Who must be accommodated?

A tenant with a disability may need a reasonable accommodation or modification, or both, to have an equal opportunity to use and enjoy their dwelling, including public and common spaces of the property.

A disability is a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of a person’s major life activities. Major life activities are things like walking, thinking, breathing—the things people do every day to live their lives.

Many disabilities, such as chronic debilitating diseases, are not visible to a casual observer. A person with a disability may not need any accommodation. Therefore, a landlord is only required to provide accommodations and modifications when requested, not to offer or suggest them.

Often, a person who requests an accommodation for parking will have an obvious need for a parking space near the dwelling, such as a tenant who uses a wheelchair. However, it is important to remember that many non-visible impairments also limit a person’s mobility, such as COPD or heart disease. Therefore, when a tenant with no obvious need for a parking accommodation requests one, a landlord may inquire further.

If the disability is not visible, the landlord may ask for verification that the tenant has a disability (but may not ask for specific details about the nature of the disability). The landlord may also ask enough to establish that the accommodation is necessary and reasonable.

What is a reasonable accommodation? A reasonable accommodation is a change, exception, or adjustment in a landlord’s policies, procedures, practices, rules or services that allows a tenant with a disability equal opportunity to use and enjoy their dwelling, including common and public spaces of the property. A landlord is required to pay for accommodations that are not unduly expensive, such as painting a parking space or installing a “reserved” sign.

Landlords are not required to pay for accommodations that would impose an undue burden financially or administratively, or that would change the fundamental nature of the landlord’s services.

For example, if a tenant using a wheelchair wanted a van-sized parking place painted outside their townhouse, where the only existing one was on the other end of the parking lot, this would be reasonable. If the same tenant wanted the landlord to serve as the tenant’s chauffeur for personal errands, this would be a fundamental alteration of the landlord’s business and not reasonable.

Learn more here on parking as reasonable accommodation.

The City of Iowa City is working with the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital and College of Public Health to improve the health of Iowa City’s youngest residents.

A new collaboration, called Community Prescriptions, was formed to develop ways to increase activity in young children ages 2to 12, while also getting kids outdoors and using their neighborhood parks and trails.

Pediatricians will distribute 350 Hit the Ground Fitness kits that were assembled by City staff and provided to University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital pediatricians at their Scott Boulevard Clinic, and at other UI Health Care clinics serving Iowa City residents.

These kits were made possible by grant funding from Invest Health- a project of the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation and Reinvestment Fund- and product donations from Sanford Health.

In addition, the pediatricians will also write Prescriptions for Play to children eligible for discounts for Parks and Recreation activities. The City committed $1,000 of Invest Health funding to cover the costs remaining after the discount.

The pediatricians will have those who received a kit come back for follow-up care. Surveys will indicate if the child increased their activity level and what changes to the activity could be made to increase or sustain the activity.

The collaboration is a new way to demonstrate how health professionals and City department can work together to improve children’s health using amenities and services already available in our neighborhoods.

The Iowa City Public Library hosted a free screening of the documentary film “The True Cost” on Thursday, Nov. 14, 2019.

The 2015 documentary centers on the environmental and personal impacts of the fast fashion industry and the influx of cheaper clothing products. This documentary shows another, less glamorous and environmentally damaging side to the fashion industry by highlighting the negative impacts of clothing factories in countries where many of the fast fashion brands are outsourced.

How can you make a difference? To reduce your personal fashion impacts on the environment, the City encourages you to consider these tips: buy quality clothing that will last, mend and repair clothing that you own, donate clothing you no longer need to secondhand and consignment stores and shop secondhand. Visit the Iowa City Area Resale and Consignment Directory for a full list of local stores.

The City observed Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2019 as Transgender Day of Remembrance in Iowa City.

Transgender Day of Remembrance began in 1999 as a vigil to honor the memory of Rita Hester, a transgender woman who was killed in 1998, and to raise awareness of hate crimes against persons who are transgender or gender non-conforming.

Transgender individuals around the world and in the United States are exposed to widespread social stigma, discrimination, harassment, and physical and sexual abuse. The City recognizes the importance of this day and honors the bravery and resilience of transgender individuals who live, work or play in the City as their authentic self. To hear and watch the proclamation click here.

The City Manager’s Roundtable took place on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2019.

Representatives at the Roundtable met and heard from the Police Department’s new Community Outreach Assistant, Daisy Torres.

The Transportation Department’s Darian Nagle-Gamm presented the department’s comprehensive transit study and its focuses for the year. Some of the objectives include: doubling ridership, making transit easily accessible, meeting the needs of a greater number of people, focusing on access to transit for recreational activities and not just commuting for work, implementing new technology, updating the app system, making fare pay easier, and making the system more sustainable. The department also made a survey available online that allows community members to tell Transit about their ideal transit system.

In 2016, the City of Iowa City applied for and received an African American Civil Rights Grant from the National Park Service for a two-part project.

The first step was to nominate two buildings in Iowa City that provided housing to Black students when other housing opportunities were denied to them to the National Register of Historic Places.

The second was to create educational signage for these two buildings, as well as provide print and digital media educational materials.

The two buildings are the Iowa Federation Home, located at 942 Iowa Ave., and Tate Arms, located at 914 S. Dubuque St. Both houses were recognized because they provided off-campus dormitory-style housing for Black students during a time when the University of Iowa barred Black students from living on campus and landlords refused to rent to them.

These houses served as a safe place to live for those students that did not have the privilege of on campus housing. To learn more about the City’s initiative to preserve Black history in Iowa City, visit our historic preservation web page.

For detailed information on current trainings, initiatives, or programs, visit icgov.org/SJREinitiatives, and scroll to Social Justice and Racial Equity Quarterly Updates.

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