Cameron Grove condo officials charged with housing discrimination

Disabled owners refused keys to building’s side doors

The condo’s board of directors and its Fort Washington-based management company, H&E Management Associates Ltd., refused due to security concerns, said David C. Gardner, a Rockville lawyer representing both the board and the management company.

Gardner said the condo’s owners voted on two separate occasions not to make keys available because it would have required spending about $20,000 for a new security system at those doors.

Cameron Grove, located in Upper Marlboro, is a community of high-end condominiums and single-unit homes for people who are at least 55 years old.

Because the residents are older, ‘‘security is a very large concern,” Gardner said.

But Maryland’s fair housing law requires that policies be modified to accommodate those with disabilities, Wood said.

‘‘There are other condo buildings in this complex which give keys to the residents in the building for other reasons or no reason, or just for convenience,” Wood said.

Only one of the community’s 11 condos is named in the charges, a 30-unit, three-story building called Cameron Grove Condominium II.

Wood said three of Cameron Grove’s condos make side door keys available to owners.

The two condo owners, 82-year-old Albert Doby and Peggy Daniel, who Wood said is in her 70s, filed separate complaints with the MCHR in 2006 after their requests for keys were denied by their board of directors.

Both owners provided medical proof of their disabilities when they made their requests, Wood said.

The Maryland Commission on Human Relations is the state’s civil rights enforcement agency. The commission deals with discrimination cases in matters of housing, employment and public access.

Doby suffers from degenerative arthritis, spinal stenosis and asthma, and has a nerve stimulator device implanted in his spine that helps him walk, according to the statement of charges filed by the MCHR. Daniel suffers from severe arthritis in her hips and knees, and can walk short distances with the use of a cane and a crutch, but usually gets around in a motorized scooter.

Residents can exit the building using the side doors but cannot enter through them because the doors are locked from the outside.

Using the side doors to enter their building would be ‘‘quick, safe and convenient” for Doby and Daniel in certain situations, like when they return from the grocery store or go to Cameron Grove’s nearby community center, Wood said.

Daniel has lived in the building since 2001. Doby has lived there since 2004.

Wood said her agency filed the charges after conducting an investigation and after making an effort to reconcile the situation, which she said was unsuccessful.

But Gardner said the board of directors offered to give Doby and Daniel, both of whom can drive, the parking spaces closest to the front door.

The building’s front door has ramps, hand rails, and card-operated, sliding glass doors, while the side doors were not designed to be handicapped accessible, he said.

The trial will be held July 1 through July 3 in Largo before an administrative law judge from the Maryland Office of Administrative Hearings.

The commission is asking that keys be given to Doby and Daniel, and that civil penalties totaling $20,000 be paid to the state, while $50,000 in damages be paid to both Doby and Daniel.

The commission is also asking that the board of directors of Cameron Grove Condominium II and H&E Management Associates personnel be required to attend sensitivity training.

Wood said this is the first time the MCHR has brought charges against either Cameron Grove or H&E Management Associates.

E-mail Andy Zieminski at azieminski@gazette.net.