Barriers to Affordable, Accessible and Attainable Housing for People with Disabilities

As an Independent Living Specialist and Housing Advocate for people with disabilities, over 80% of my current clientele are needing housing. The non-profit agency I work for has been tracking barriers to our consumers obtaining housing and recognize consistent trends. The most common barriers for the people served at Center For Independence are identified as:

1. Access to Financial Resources- People on disability, those unable to work due to their disabling conditions, receive monthly incomes between $948.00 to approximately $1500 per month in income. Those awaiting disability income may receive $248.00 in AND assistance until they are approved (if they are approved). This income is not sufficient to pay current rental market costs. This puts people with disabilities at the mercy of housing assistance programs that subsidize rental costs. These programs are inadequate to meet the demand of those needing this assistance, with waiting lists from one year to sometimes up to 3 years. The statistics are staggering of the number of people with disabilities living in houselessness situations. Even if a person with a disability is able to obtain a housing voucher, these vouchers rarely have fees and security deposits included in the voucher program. Although in Mesa County, one agency has a program available to assist with these additional costs, this program is significantly underfunded, only able to provide for a small fraction of those in need of those funds.

2. Attainable Housing Availability- People with disabilities are at a disadvantage when needing accessible rental units or special accommodations, simply because of limited housing meeting specific ADA expectations. Although there are legal protections & expectations in place to provide accommodations for people with disabilities, the reality is that housing units that meet the need are scarce.

3. Affordable Housing in general does not exist for anyone making less than $45,000.00 or up to $60,000.00 annually. Most people living with a disability do not have incomes within the range needed to pay current housing costs. Programs that assist lower income renters/buyers are not accessible in a timely manner (see #1).

4. The lack of transitional or temporary housing programs keeps individuals with disabilities from having a stable place to live while waiting to get access to permanent independent housing. This leaves people with disabilities no other option but to exist on the streets, in their cars, in RVs with no utilities & illegally camping on public land, or in shelters. Shelters are often insufficient in meeting the needs of people with disabilities.

5. Landlord, Property Management may not adhere to Fair Housing legislation or may find legal loopholes around housing people with disabilities. Although there are avenues for people with disabilities to fight housing discrimination, these avenues are often time intensive, costly and ineffective in providing access to housing (or in maintaining housing). Landlords & property managers have the resources, the perceived imbalance of power and the advantage of an oversaturated market that puts people with disabilities in a position unable to fight discriminatory practices. Many people with disabilities will not file complaints for fear of illegal eviction practices or being harassed by a landlord. If Fair housing accountability is to be effective, resources to fight or mediate issues need to be accessible to the person experiencing discrimination.

6. Transportation- Accessing housing opportunities requires that people with disabilities be able to get to available properties for walk through's and to make direct, in person contact with landlords & property management (many landlords & property managers require these types of direct contacts). Online applications are often inaccessible to people with disabilities. Obtaining support to get assistance from non-profit organizations or agencies providing housing services also requires a mode of transportation. Many receiving disability income have transportation paid for medical transportation services, but it is not available for non-medical transportation. In Mesa County, there is only one non-profit agency providing non-medical transportation and this organization only provides services to the elderly and they have a lengthy wait list.

There are many other barriers that have been identified, but these are the most common and most detrimental in interfering with the ability for people with disabilities to obtain housing.

Thank You,

Chamaine Ready