Major Victory for Deaf Senior as Court Finds Glendale Housing Authority Violated Disability Rights
The Los Angeles Superior Court has ruled that the Glendale Housing Authority (GHA) violated the disability rights of Banik Avetikian, a 70-year-old deaf man and Section 8 housing voucher participant, by denying him American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation and a federally authorized housing subsidy increase that would allow him to remain in his home without being excessively rent burdened.
The ruling, issued by Judge Curtis A. Kin of the Los Angeles Superior Court, grants all three of Mr. Avetikian’s claims, ordering the Glendale Housing Authority to:
- Communicate with Mr. Avetikian through his preferred means of communication, including providing ASL interpretation for all oral and written communications;
- Grant an Exception Payment Standard (EPS) as a reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities who require it under federal law, and not arbitrarily deny EPS as a matter of blanket policy if it was not sought during initial move-in or because the tenant’s portion of rent does not exceed 40% of monthly income; and
- Vacate its decision denying Mr. Avetikian’s 2023 request for an EPS and determining it had not committed disability discrimination.
Deaf since childhood, Mr. Avetikian immigrated to the United States as an adult and did not begin learning American Sign Language until his forties. Mr. Avetikian has lived in his Glendale rental unit since 2002 while living on a fixed disability income and has relied on the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program since 2007. Because ASL and English are distinct languages, and because Mr. Avetikian has limited English literacy, written notices from the Glendale Housing Authority were effectively inaccessible without ASL interpretation.
Mr. Avetikian came to NLSLA in 2023 when he was suddenly threatened with the prospect of losing the home he had lived in since 2002. NLSLA became involved in 2023 after the GHA approved a rent increase for Mr. Avetikian’s landlord that exceeded the amount GHA would subsidize for his unit. As a result, Mr. Avetikian was required to pay more than 30% of his household income toward rent—the nationally recognized metric for housing affordability.
Mr. Avetikian, through NLSLA, requested an Exception Payment Standard (EPS) — a federally authorized rent subsidy increase for persons with disabilities—as a reasonable accommodation to keep his rent affordable.
Despite GHA’s own acknowledgment that Mr. Avetikian is a qualified individual with a disability, the housing authority refused to grant him an EPS. For years, GHA had also failed in its obligation as a federally and state-funded entity to provide ASL interpretation services, only made worse when it switched to all-mail communications during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In November 2023, NLSLA filed suit on Mr. Avetikian’s behalf to compel GHA to follow the law. On June 15, 2026, the Court issued its favorable ruling on Mr. Avetikian’s petition for writ of mandate.
“This ruling affirms what the law has long required: public housing authorities must provide reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities that provide them meaningful and equal access to government programs. This includes language access for the deaf and hard of hearing communities,” said Andrés Rapoport, Director of Litigation at Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County. “Mr. Avetikian spent years unable to fully understand or participate in the Section 8 program and, as a result, he failed to receive equal access to benefits to which he was entitled under the law. This ruling corrects that.”
The ruling has broad implications for Section 8 participants with disabilities throughout Los Angeles County who are entitled to Exception Payment Standards and who may be struggling with language access because they are deaf and hard of hearing. It makes clear that housing authorities must provide subsidy increases as required by law for individuals with disabilities and must provide meaningful language access.
