For Immediate Release
Monday, April 5 1999
Contact:
Ann O'hare, 617/742-5657
Kathy McGinley, 202/785-3388
WASHINGTON, D.C., April 5-In every state across the country, people
with disabilities face an affordable housing crisis. This crisis is the
direct result of both the actions and inactions of the federal government,
and the unwillingness of many local and state housing officials to
acknowledge or address the housing needs of people with disabilities.
The Technical Assistance Collaborative Inc. (TAC) and the Consortium for
Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) Housing Task Force just published a
compelling report detailing the housing situation facing people with
disabilities. Priced Out in 1998: The Housing Crisis for People with
Disabilities, available at the website for Opening Doors, a publication on
housing advocacy (http://www.c-c-d.org/doors.html), explores the extent of
this problem particularly for people with disabilities who receive
Supplemental Security Income (SSI).
The report uses the federal housing affordability standard for very
low income households which suggests that no more than 30% of monthly income
should be spent on housing. In 1998 the federal SSI program provided an
individual with a disability a monthly income of $494. Based on that figure,
Priced Out documents that in every state and major housing market area people
with disabilities receiving SSI benefits were "priced out" of the market --
unable to afford a modest efficiency or one bedroom apartment.
In addition to findings at the national level, Priced Out also
includes geographically specific income and housing cost data for people with
disabilities receiving SSI in each of the 2,646 housing market areas of the
United States.
According to the report, individuals receiving SSI are among the
lowest income households in the country. Compared to the hourly minimum wage
of $5.15, the SSI monthly benefit is equal to $3.09 per hour. Other alarming
findings are:
The national average income of an individual with a disability receiving SSI
is only 24.4 percent of the typical one-person income in a community.
The average cost nationally of a one-bedroom apartment is 69 percent of SSI
monthly income and more than a person's total monthly SSI income in 125
housing market areas of the country.
Clearly, without affordable housing, people with disabilities continue to
live at home with aging parents, in crowded homeless shelters, in
institutions or nursing homes, or are forced to choose between seriously
substandard housing or paying most of their monthly income for rent.
The report recommends that the federal, state and local policymakers refocus
their housing policies, programs and resources to ensure that people with
disabilities, do not continue to be "priced out" of the housing market.
Find Priced Out and more valuable information on affordable housing issues
at the Opening Doors website at http://www.c-c-d.org/doors.html. Visit the
TAC website at http://www.tacinc.org and the CCD Housing Task Force website
at http://www.c-c-d.org/housing.html.
-30-
Kim Musheno
The Arc Governmental Affairs Office
1730 K Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006
kimarc(AT)radix.net
http://www.TheArc.org/ga/Governmental_Affairs.html
http://www.c-c-d.org