[nagdu] Reasonable Accommodation?

Tue Sep 7 14:42:21 UTC 2010

Thanks, Steve!  I haven't checked their site yet on this issue, but I do
know they're overloaded like crazy.  I'll see what they have on the web that
pertains here, though.  Thanks for going that extra mile!

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Steve Johnson
Sent: Sunday, September 05, 2010 5:12 AM
To: 'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Reasonable Accommodation?

Tami,

I would agree with Julie, and did some further checking for you regarding
fair housing resources in your state.  Check out the following link which is
the Oregon Fair Housing Council.  It has a lot of information on their page,
and due to the specifics of your situation which we do not know, you will
want to check out the various links that best fit your situation.  This
includes what appears to be all of the subject areas highlighted in your
email including contractural issues, and landlord tenant laws which could be
for persons who have a manufactured home or otherwise.  Check this link out:
http://www.fhco.org/faqs.htm

Steve Johnson
-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Tamara Smith-Kinney
Sent: Saturday, September 04, 2010 7:32 PM
To: 'NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users'
Subject: [nagdu] Reasonable Accommodation?

Er...  Is there a secret key to requesting reasonable accommodation under
the FHA (we're talking a single rule in this case)?

In other words, can I just write a quick letter saying I need to do X with
my dog so I am requesting ye olde reasonable accommodation?  And that's
that?

Er...  Um...  What if the reason I need reasonable accommodation in this
case is because the people I'm requesting it from have not met their legal
and contractual responsbilities when it comes to the safety of the land we
rent from them for the home we own...

This is Oregon, BTW.  Dealing with it directly by, say, hiring an attorney
and stuff like that is not, as near as anyone I know has ever discovered,
will not happen.  Some of the people I know and have discussed such matters
with are working feverishly to do something about Oregon landlord/tenant law
while trying to provide advocacy for tenants, but the problem is so hopeless
and so overwhelming that they just come out and tell you that the best they
can do is to give you a list of numbers to call but that nobody at the other
end of those numbers will do a dange thing.

So...  We fenced off our backyard, after getting proper approval and such
when we purchased the house, and they promised they would fix the back yard
so it was safe to walk around on and ready for us to landscape.  This would
required heavy equipment and the like but they would get it in and do it
before we moved in.  Also, of course, they would get the trees removed,
since they create a safety hazard for me especially and since we included
the removal of those trees in our purchase contract.  We purchased the home
from the landowners we rent the lot from.

Anyway, a year and a half later, and I still cannot exercise with the dogs
in the backyard.  So I need reasonable accommodation to do so with Mitzi in
my front yard, which is safe for both of us, except for no fence between us
and the street.  Side street, limited traffic, most of it slow, but still!
Mitzi is off leash and boundary trained -- although she will still push the
envelope a bit on the boundaries, then turn around and run back.  At the age
of 4, she's got it down to 4 feet (hers, as opposed to one toe) over the
line, and then hardly ever.  So it's our safest option to get the exercise
we both need without having to risk death going to a dog park, since they
are now belatedly upgrading the infrastructure out here to accommodate the
population, so it's crazy out there.  /smile/

Anyway, I'm feeling quite lost in it all because as far as the park manger
(the one who is supposed to be getting the work done) is concerned, I am
breaking a rule by playing with my dog in my own front yard, which he
translates as letting her run loose around the entire park.  Er...  I did
attempt to discuss the situation, and DD has done so as well, but they
called the Oregon Commission for the Blind about it...  And I think GDB,
too, though I can't remember for sure.  I thought I made it clear it had
nothing to do with my blindness or Mitzi's work as a guide dog, beyond the
added value of her training, which they are crazy to think I will endanger
just willy nilly...  

There is also, apparently, an issue with Mitzi's being off-leash in the
front yard because of Daisy.  Who has nothing to do with it and is *never*
off leash anywhere except in the house, the back yard or the car.
Nevertheless, last I heard, my playing/training/exercising my poodle in my
own front yard is a terrible, terrible problem and danger because we can't
have Daisy loose out there.

I will remind you, I live in Oregon.  There is not a dang thing I can do or
anyone to call or write on the state level who will do anything or even
record the call or put my letter in a file ... Very much the same as with
OCB.   Well, since I'm blind and my dog also happens to be a guide dog when
she's working, I can get referred to the OCB or to GDB...  /lol/  Even when
it's clearly not a blindness or guide dog related issue.  And even if it
was, my dog is not from GDB, so...  I can't quite figure out how they come
into it, except that they happen to be there and I happen to have a guide
dog.  /lol/

I've been asking around here and there to see if maybe some randome person
will know something I don't that will make the way things are around here
make sense...More than one such random human has suggested I call OCB and
GDB, seeming quite assured that that will take care of everything...  OCB is
militant in protecting information relating to blindness or blindness
issues, although a sighted person can't be expected to know that, I guess.

As for GDB...  Have I been living this close to them all this time without
ever catching on that they're actually Hogwarts?  /lol/  Even if I did call
them about the issue, why would they possibley care?  Or why would they
assume that I am not a crackpot myself, on the basis that I have called them
out of the blue about an issue that has nothing to do with them or one of
their dogs or anything, with the expectation that they will fix it?

Now that I have attempted to ask the question and try to outline the
situation, I am feeling like a crazy crackpot, so I guess I'll have my guide
dog take me to the store and hope we live to tell the tale...  It's not the
traffic on Farmington that's the problem, I have decided.  It's the people
driving the traffic...  Also since there is nowhere to walk but the bike
lane most of the way, and since drivers assume the bike lane is there for
them to pass on...  Whaddaya do? /smile/

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Sherri
Sent: Friday, September 03, 2010 7:12 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] harness pouch

Thank you. That's where mine came from too, however, it is worn out. 
Perhaps a harness pouch with the NFB logo and a picture of a dog or
something like that would be a good item that NAGDU could sell for
fund-raising as well.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Charlene Ota" <caota at hawaii.rr.com>
To: "'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, September 03, 2010 10:01 PM
Subject: [nagdu] harness pouch

> Sherri, just to let you know, I found out that the harness pouch that I 
> was
> given is actually the sign that says something like "Don't pet working 
> dog"
> and it was purchased from Guide Dogs Incorporated for $20. The sign is a
> small pouch that fits over the harness with two straps. The pouch has 
> GDUI's
> logo on it but I don't think the sign does and thsign is basically a small
> pouch in itself and has room enough for pooh bags and maybe a foldable 
> water
> bowl or things like that.
>
> That's about all I know. I'm not sure where else to get harness pouchs or
> signs like it.
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