• canstockphoto8877343Accessible housing is required by the Fair Housing Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act. According to HUD guidelines, housing that is accessible facilitates the ability of persons with disabilities to enjoy full use of their homes and is essential for equal access and to avoid future de facto exclusion of people with disabilities.
  • Affordable housing is in short supply in every community.  There is an extreme shortage of housing units that are affordable to people at an SSI level of income. Housing assistance funds are essential to correct this inequity. The standard for affordability i housing is that a tenant pays no more than 30% of his or her income for housing and utility costs.
  • Integrated housing is important to integration of people with disabilities into the community. An integrated setting is one that allows people to interact with people who do not have disabilities.
  • The Olmstead Decision is one of the most important pieces of case law regarding housing for people with disabilities, and affirmed the right of people with disabilities to live in the community.
  • Decent, safe, and affordable. HUD has established Housing Quality Standards for all affordable housing that receives federal subsidy dollars, in order to assure that housing is “decent and safe”.
  • Housing alone may not be enough.  Many individuals with all types of disabilities need supportive services to help them remain in housing. The needed supports or services might include personal assistance services, primary health care, mental health services, substance abuse treatment, money management, benefits assistance, job training, transportation, day care and in-home nursing care.

(Excerpted from Choose, Get, Keep … Integrated Community Housing by Ann Denton, Sarah Andre, Darrell Jones and Judith Holt, and used by the recent on site training on Housing. For more resources on housing, including this manual and the video from this on site training when complete, check here.)  Art is from <!– HTML Credit Code for Can Stock Photo–><a href=”http://www.canstockphoto.com”>(c) Can Stock Photo</a>

Six Things Every Housing Specialist Needs to Know

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