Housing discrimination on the rise

This news story about a Cape Cod woman trying for the past two years to find affordable accessible housing for her family reveals numerous obstacles to avoiding utter homelessness. A dearth of accessible residences despite growing demand, fair housing accessibility exemptions for single family housing, and the complete inadequacy of Section 8 vouchers to cover actual rental costs in a competitive market create a crisis situation for disabled people in need of housing. Current attempts by political conservatives to scale back the already insufficient federal assistance of Section 8 vouchers promises this will only get worse for the poorest citizens.

Perhaps more worrisome is the discrimination accompanying these economic woes. Renters put-off by paperwork for Section 8 vouchers, fearing costly modifications or worrying about possible litigation may find ways to avoid taking on disabled tenants. Or landlords will simply refuse to make their property accessible to the disabled person looking to rent. From the Cape Cod story:

William Howell, New England program director for Fair Housing, an arm of HUD, said disability complaints are increasing faster than any other area of complaint about housing.

He said they now total about one-third of all the complaints his office receives, equal to those with a racial component. Most of that increase is due to landlords being unwilling to adapt housing to the needs of people with disabilities.

Complaints about refusals to rent have stayed the same. Howell and others say that may be due to people with disabilities hesitating to file a complaint if they think it will hinder their ultimate goal: housing.

"People are so very desperate to get housing," said Myra Berloff, the director of the Massachusetts Office on Disability, "that they will accept things other people wouldn't think of accepting and won't complain."

Complications in housing can, as you might imagine, contribute to the lack of employment of qualified disabled persons -- currently, only 42 percent of working-age men with disabilities are employed, and that number drops to 34 percent for women.* When the options of where to live are so restricted, the ability to relocate for a job becomes an obstacle to accepting employment. If accessible transportation is inadequate, commuting any distance becomes impossible too.

* The U.S. Census Bureau statistics for 2003 claim there are 37.5 million disabled people aged 5 and over in the country. Their numbers do not count "non-civilians" or people living in institutions.

News story via Rolling Rains.