A Florida condominium association and its board of directors refused to grant an accommodation to allow an owner to leave his shoes outside the front door of his unit in a condominium building with outdoor walkways. As a result of its unyielding resolve, the association now faces a costly, and potentially dire, federal discrimination lawsuit brought against it by the U.S. Department of Justice. The DOJ’s complaint alleges that the association, in refusing to allow the unit owner to leave his shoes outside of his unit’s front door, committed various violations of the Fair Housing Act. Furthermore, the entire matter has also been chronicled online in an extensive news report by The Daily Beast.

The website’s article begins by noting that Charlie Burge, the unit owner who sought an accommodation that would allow him to maintain his shoes outside his unit’s front door, is a 9/11 responder who suffers from medical ailments stemming from his front-line work at the World Trade Center site. Before moving to Florida, he had worked for the New York City Department of Sanitation for 35 years, and he spent more than 400 days clearing debris at ground zero. As a result of this work, the article states that Burge suffers from upper respiratory issues, gastrointestinal ailments, skin cancer and PTSD; all of which federal officials have certified as being related to cleanup work performed at the WTC site.