## Facts

- Oakland University participated in an inclusive postsecondary program (“OPTIONS”) for students with intellectual disabilities, allowing participants to audit regular classes and engage in campus life.
- Program materials identified on-campus housing as an important feature supporting integration and independent living skills.
- Mikah Fialka-Feldman, a student with cognitive impairments, successfully audited university courses and participated broadly in campus activities.
- The university had a written housing policy limiting on-campus residence halls to full-time, degree-seeking students.
- Because Fialka-Feldman was not a matriculated, degree-seeking student (he audited/non-credit courses through OPTIONS), the university denied his request for on-campus housing.
- Fialka-Feldman sued, alleging unlawful refusal to make a reasonable accommodation under the Fair Housing Act (FHA), § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and Title II of the ADA, and sought injunctive relief requiring access to dormitory housing.
- The parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment.

## Issues

1. Whether Fialka-Feldman was a qualified individual with a disability under the FHA, § 504, and Title II of the ADA.
2. Whether university residence halls qualify as “dwellings” covered by the FHA.
3. Whether refusing to waive the full-time, degree-seeking housing requirement was a denial of a reasonable accommodation necessary for equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling (FHA) and for meaningful access to a program or benefit (§ 504/ADA).
4. Whether the requested waiver constituted impermissible preferential treatment or a fundamental alteration of the university’s housing program.

## Decision

- The court held Fialka-Feldman was a qualified individual with a disability under the FHA, § 504, and the ADA.
- The court held university residence halls are “dwellings” under the FHA.
- The court ruled the university’s refusal to waive the full-time, degree-seeking requirement constituted an unlawful denial of a reasonable and necessary accommodation under the FHA and § 504 (with parallel ADA analysis).
- The court rejected the arguments that the waiver was impermissible preferential treatment or would fundamentally alter the housing program, finding the requested change modest and not shown essential to the program’s nature.
- The court granted summary judgment to Fialka-Feldman on the reasonable-accommodation theory (and denied defendants’ request for summary judgment on those claims) and entered a permanent injunction requiring the university to permit him to reside in on-campus housing subject to ordinary residential life rules other than the challenged eligibility requirement.

## Legal Principles

- The FHA’s reasonable-accommodation duty applies to covered “dwellings,” including student residence halls used as places of residence.
- Disability-discrimination statutes can require modification of facially neutral rules when necessary to provide equal opportunity or meaningful access; identical treatment may still be discriminatory.
- A requested accommodation is unreasonable if it would impose undue burdens or fundamentally alter the nature of the program; the defendant bears the burden of substantiating such defenses with evidence.
- Under the FHA, an accommodation must be necessary to afford an equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling; under § 504/Title II, modifications may be required to provide meaningful access to a program or benefit.
- Injunctive relief may be appropriate where denial of access concerns time-sensitive educational and residential opportunities not adequately remedied by money damages.

## Conclusion

The court concluded that on-campus dormitories are FHA-covered dwellings and that the university unlawfully denied a reasonable, necessary accommodation by rigidly applying a degree-seeking eligibility rule to exclude a student with intellectual disabilities from campus housing, warranting a permanent injunction granting him access.


Fialka-Feldman v. Oakland Univ. Bd. of Trs., 678 F. Supp. 2d 576 (E.D. Mich. 2009)