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Q. Do testers have a role in enforcement?

A. Yes. Testers are often essential to substantiate individual complaints and to audit larger discriminatory patterns and practices.

Testers seek to verify a discrimination complaint by applying for the same apartment or house as the victim and presenting essentially the same credentials--work history, salary, references--the only difference being that they are not the same race or sex or are not disabled or do not have children. Testing has been accepted by the courts as a valid method of verifying discrimination. The courts have also held that testers have the same right to file a complaint as other persons when they are given false information about the availability of housing, in violation of the Act.

Q. What about land-use practice cases that effectively exclude minorities and other protected groups?

A. All complaints to HUD concerning such land-use practices would be referred to the Attorney General for possible litigation.

Q. What kind of actions regarding the disabled will be prohibited?

A. It will be unlawful:

-- to make unavailable or otherwise deny housing to people on the basis of their disabilites. People with disabilities thus will have access to all the assurances available to the other protected classes.

-- to disallow people with disabilities the opportunity to make reasonable modification to their existing premises, provided they do so at their own expense.

-- to build multifamily housing which does not meet minimal levels of access so that it will be useable by persons with disabilities. Multifamily housing is defined as elevator buildings and ground floors of garden apartments. Compliance with this section will be required 30 months after enactment.

Q. Won't it be costly to make housing useable by the disabled?

A. Adaptable housing is housing which assures full access and useability by people with disabilities but does not "look" special or different. The minimum access requirements which have been specified in the bill are virtually no cost items when addressed prior to construction, and reflect adaptable design standards which have been developed nationally. For example, the