[nagdu] EXTERNAL: Reasonable Accommodation?

Tamara Smith-Kinney tamara.8024 at comcast.net
Tue Sep 7 18:15:12 UTC 2010 

True about the land ownership.  However, the property owner (via the
management company via the park manager) is responsible for maintaining the
property they own according to certain safety standards.  Which they are not
in the back yard.

So we cannot use the back yard -- which we fenced off for the dogs according
to the rules and all that, with proper approval and everything -- without
risk of injury.  In fact, I have been getting micro-injuries on an almost
daily basis.  I have gotten at least two major injuries that are running up
my medical bills.  Again.  They should have done the work back there before
we moved in to live up to their legal and contractual obligations, but they
did not, so that's a problem.  There is also risk of physical injury to the
dogs themselves, and that has happened, just nothing really serious yet.

The front yard -- or side yard, I guess, to be more accurate -- is entirely
different and is not unsafe for me or for Mitzi except that there is not a
barrier between her and the street...  It's not a wild and crazy street, and
her boundary training is solid and her increasing maturity is increasing her
reliability.  I still have to remind her when she gets a yen to bound
joyfully out of bounds, but she stops and comes back.  Whew.

So the front/side yard is the option for me to meet my dog's need for
exercise and my own need for exercise with the least potential to either of
us.  I would prefer a fully fenced area for that, since she is then
completely safe from being able to dash into the street at exactly the wrong
time and get hit by some bozo speeding through without care for speed bumps,
children or poodles.  

Since the owners of the property we rent have not lived up to their
legal/contractual responsibilities, I need adjust of the rules so that I can
live in my home on the property I rent -- making it effectively my own front
yard -- because of their, well, lawbreaking, which has increased my medical
expenses and threatens the career of my guide if she happens to break a leg.
The life of Daisy, in fact, if she breaks her remaining front leg out there.
Which is a problem, too, because she is not trained or socialized as Mitzi
is to run and play elsewhere, except in the house.  I do make sure to play
with her indoors as much as I can and get her running and having fun --
which means loud barking for her! -- but there is a limit to what I can do
outdoors with her.  I do keep working on her recall and "quiet" out there,
but it is difficult because I can't walk around.  The bright side is that
she has now worn a trail we can both use, although it is still iffy for me
to walk to her to get her attention since I have to use my careful walk...
And if I walk off the trail, then that hurts.

Okay, I'm getting too analytical and going nuts with the details...
Wondering why it suddenly feels like I'm going around in circles.  Again!
/grin/

The root of the problem is lack of enforcement of existing laws or codes or
ordinances, a dysfunctional and clogged up legal system, a series of laws
and codes and culture that have given huge power to a small group of now
very wealthy landowners, who have further manipulated legislation and
agencies in their favor and, well, over a period of several decades so there
you have it.  Many people have suspicions about the judges and inspectors
and so forth, based on results when one of the peasants does try to object
to being taken advantage of, but honestly, there's no need for the
landowners to bribe anybody these days.  Several of them do keep every
property attorney in their jurisdiction on retainer so that even if a renter
can afford an attorney, she/he can't hire one because it would create a
conflict of interest.

Thus, my need to resolve their irresponsibility and lack of compliance with
the laws and codes by playing with my dog in the front yard not the back
yard...

No, it does not make sense.

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Pickrell, Rebecca M (TASC)
Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 2010 8:50 AM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] EXTERNAL: Reasonable Accommodation?

Tami, 
Just read that you are in a trailer park. I know that isn't the PC term,
but my understanding is that it isn't your front yard. It belongs to the
manager and he/she can make whatever rules they want. The trailer is
yours, the land is not. So yes, he's correct that Mitsy is off-leash
even if it is right out in what you think of as your front yard. 
Again, I still fail to see why this is blindness related. And what is
OCB? Who cares if you got "turned in"? What does that mean exactly? 


-----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 8:32 PM
To: 'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'
Subject: EXTERNAL:[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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> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
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>
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