Housing Stability for People with Disabilities

Opinion

By Jennifer Gilbert and Angelina Ramirez

Massachusetts has a housing crisis. But we’re seeing how the push for solutions is having positive results.

The Massachusetts Legislature recently passed a housing bond bill designed to jump-start housing production and make housing more affordable. With this progress, now is a perfect moment to focus intentionally toward the needs of a population where housing instability can upend every facet of life: people with disabilities.

Turning our attention toward supporting this population is especially important because addressing the housing crisis for this population — about 12% of our Commonwealth’s households — requires distinct attention to distinct needs.

First, Massachusetts has some of the oldest housing stock in the country. We may be right to cherish our triple-deckers. They are, however, not easily converted for people who have mobility issues. Just a single step at an entrance or uneven floor levels can mean someone with a cane or walker or wheelchair cannot be housed. It is also a common reason people need to move: how many of us wonder how long we can climb the stairs?

In the western part of the state, there has been even less new housing production. New multi-family buildings are required to have accessible units, but we just don’t build that many. There is an opportunity with new housing production to address the range of needs of households with disabilities, with potential steps such as:

• Requiring, at the local planning level, that developers go beyond the federal housing requirement of at least 5% accessible units in new buildings;

• Requiring more universal access to address the fuller range of housing needs and aging in place; and

• Integrating processes that ensure people with disabilities are aware of and move into accessible housing once built.

Second, the goal must be both affordability and accessibility. Households with a disabled member are more likely to experience poverty. In line with national numbers, only about one-third of people with disabilities in Massachusetts are employed. Many rely on Supplemental Security Income, which is around $1,100 a month. For comparison, the median rent in Springfield is $1,047.

Stavros serves about 9,500 people a year in this population and helps about 200 new consumers a year find housing that works for them. In June, Housing Navigator Massachusetts released the first data on affordable and accessible housing in our state’s inventory of income-restricted housing — the very housing intended to serve low- and moderate-income households. The simple truth is that there is not much of this critical housing type, and the distribution is even more sparse outside Boston.

Even within the category of housing that is affordable and meets ADA access requirements, much is not affordable for the lowest-income households. This housing crunch is even more true for people who need a home that has two or more bedrooms, either because of a family or the need for an attendant or equipment. In Stavros’s service area, we identified only 950 affordable and accessible units, with only about one-third of those (337 units) serving people needing two or more bedrooms.

The data confirmed what many already knew: we need to build intentionally. We need to match dollars that lower the rent with homes in terms of location, layout, and other modifications that work for people with disabilities. Going forward, we must emphasize — down into the details that make the difference — housing that is both deeply affordable and accessible.

For everyone, a stable home is the foundation for everything we do. Now is the time to focus on housing that is affordable and accessible. These two measures add up to homes where people with disabilities have that same foundation and the opportunity to thrive.

Jennifer Gilbert is the founder and executive director of Housing Navigator Massachusetts, which offers a free online search tool and data about the Commonwealth’s affordable housing. Angelina Ramirez is the CEO of Stavros, a Western Mass. nonprofit that helps people with disabilities take charge of their own lives. She also serves on the Housing Navigator Massachusetts board of directors.