Fw: Worst Case Housing Needs of People with Disabilities - 2009

April 5, 2011

This is interesting stuff but complicated...I am not that well informed about

housing options.

Ellen

Ellen Garber Bronfeld

egskb@...

Worst Case Housing Needs of People with Disabilities - 2009.

stevegoldada@...

Worst Case Housing Needs of People with Disabilities - 2009.

Information Bulletin # 329 (4/2011)

HUD released its biannual " Worst Case " housing needs report in March. In

2009, for the first time, people with disabilities were asked direct

questions regarding their disabilities in the American Housing Survey.

The result is that the HUD report is much more accurate regarding

disability than previous " Worst Case " reports. Go to

http://www.huduser.org/portal/publications/affhsg/wen_disability.html

One major limitation is that the survey was only of noninstitutionalized

people with disabilities. Ever person with a disability in a nursing

home, mental institution, ICF-MR were not included. But heck, why think

of them having a housing problem?

Why is " Worst Case " information important for advocates? Because every

recipient of federal financial assistance from HUD's public housing

authorities for housing and vouchers, Community Development Block Grant

recipients, and HOME Investment Partnership recipients' are supposed to

prioritize housing needs using real data and supposed to allocate their

funds to meet these priorities.

Yes, yes, yes, we know the wiggle words " supposed to. " Well, housing

advocates have really dropped the ball and have not previously challenged

the use of these federal funds by and large. Too harsh?

Quick quiz:

How many of you, housing advocates for people with disabilities, have

even read a recent Consolidated Plans and the Public Housing Authorities

Annual Plans? How long has it been since you looked at one?

How many of these Plans identify and recognize that People with

Disabilities have " worst case " housing needs AND THEREFORE the federal

funds must address these needs? Do they use real data? What's the

source?

Who among you has filed a complaint with HUD to stop the federal funds

because these Plans either do not use real housing data, or do not really

address the priority of people with disabilities, or allocate these

federal funds to meet the worst needs?

One million households with nonelderly people with disabilities had " worst

case " needs. That's 38 percent of all very low-income renter households

with disabilities, a 13 percent increase from 2007.

HUD's " 2009 Worst Case Housing Needs of People with Disabilities " focuses

on the national level, but the data used is available for your locales -

whether city, county or state. It's all on the web!!! The report uses the

American Housing Survey which in 2009 asked persons if they had " serious

difficulty " hearing, seeing, concentrating, difficulty walking/climbing

stairs, dressing/bathing, going outside to shop or go to a doctor's

office.

As in the past, " worst case " means renters who pay more than one-half of

their income for rent and/or lived in severely inadequate conditions. HUD

also recognized that people with disabilities face additional housing

burden that nondisabled persons do not, including significant

discrimination and the limited availability of accessible housing.

Once again, we ask advocates if people with disabilities in your locale

have these additional burdens? If yes, then does your Consolidated Plan

identify, e.g., scarcity of accessible units, as an impediment to fair

housing? Does your Consolidated Plan address how it will remedy this

impediment? If not, have you filed a complaint with HUD to stop federal

funds until this impediment is adequately addressed?

Yes, we know HUD has not had in the past the fortitude to do anything

about this impediment, but until we file complaints HUD is completely off

the hook. It's up to you. Power concedes nothing without a struggle!

Steve Gold, The Disability Odyssey continues

Back issues of other Information Bulletins are available online at

http://www.stevegoldada.com with a searchable Archive at this site divided

into different subjects. Information Bulletins are also be posted on my

blog located at http://stevegoldada.blogspot.com/

To contact Steve Gold directly, write to stevegoldada@... or call

215-627-7100.

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April 5, 2011

Thanks for sharing this. I don't even pretend to understand housing well, but

do have the distinction (not good, just geeky) of being a community resident who

has read the CDBG Municipal Consolidated Plan for Naperville. Our city receives

between $450,000 and $500,000/year in federal funds thru HUD/CDBG, and

increasing housing options for people with developmental, mental and physical

disabilities is the #2 priority on their list of 4 funding priorities. So

that's a start.

To anyone interested in local affordable housing issues, I'd strongly suggest

you find out what unit of local government closest to you is receiving these

annual federal dollars, and how they are spending them. It's not too hard to

find out. Ours is on our city's website. Everyone needs to have a Consolidated

and/or Annual Plan for how they intend to designate grantees, how much each one

gets and what is the process in determining who gets what allocations. Surprise

surprise, a lot of it is political. But, not to sound like a broken record

here...at the local government level, there are surprisingly few individuals who

actually show up at these public meetings and express an interest or opinion

about certain projects over others. Your local elected officials may only get a

handful of calls on a CDBG funding recommendation. So your voice CAN make a big

difference.

From: ELLEN BRONFELD

Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2011 6:03 PM

IPADDUnite

Subject: Fw: Worst Case Housing Needs of People with Disabilities -

2009