A Case For Giving: Housing vs. Homelessness
“Today, hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities are homeless and living in emergency shelters or on the street because they cannot afford a decent place to live,” said Andrew Sperling, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill and the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CDD) Housing Task Force Co-Chair. “Others are living at home with aging parents in their 70s and 80s who are desperately seeking housing for their adult child while they still can.”
People with disabilities and who rely on SSI (Supplemental Security Income) payments are experiencing a national housing affordability crisis.
A study developed by the Technical Assistance Collaborative compared monthly SSI income of more than 4 million Americans with disabilities to the fair market rental rates for efficiencies and modest one-bedroom apartments in every housing market in the country. New York City needed 166% of monthly SSI to cover the cost of a one-bedroom apartment and in Chicago, 142%. In the State of Ohio the cost of a one bedroom unit is approximately 87.8% of the monthly SSI, and that does not include the cost of utilities.
The average rent charged by North Coast Community Homes (NCCH) for a four bedroom home for people with mental retardation and developmental disabilities (mr/dd) is approximately $1,100, or $275 per person. At this time monthly SSI payments amount to $579, which means that NCCH tenants on SSI are paying 47.5% of their base monthly income plus the cost of gas and electric utilities.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program and the Section 811 Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities program have been used by low-income individuals to help fill this gap between what they earn and the fair market costs of housing. However, HUD, in its Fiscal Year 2006 proposal to Congress, asked for reductions in this program rather than an expansion. As Andrew Sperling points out, “Homelessness is one inevitable outcome of this problem.”
WE NEED YOUR HELP
North Coast Community Homes strives to keep its developmental and maintenance costs as affordable as possible by employing cost efficiencies, purchasing homes only when grant funding is available to avoid the cost of debt service, and retaining its own in-house maintenance and landscaping staff. However, the cost of housing has risen, maintenance costs are being adversely affected by the high price of fuel, and replacement parts and appliance costs are on the rise. Additionally, by virtue of the nature of our population, properties are in need of repair far more often than in the normal course of events. As we develop homes this year, special modifications are required for properties which can meet the needs of tenants with more severe disabilities:
- Individuals with severe uncontrolled seizure disorders.
- Individuals with autism who engage in self-injurious behavior.
- Individuals with behavioral problems.
- Individuals with mobility impairments.
It has become more and more difficult to adhere to Federal guidelines recommending that low-income households should pay no more than 30% to 40% of monthly income towards housing costs.
The waiting lists at the County Boards of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities in the counties we serve, Cuyahoga, Lake, Stark and Summit, still remain very long.
Your help can make a difference. Click here to make an on-line donation to NCCH so we can continue to serve some of the most vulnerable among us.
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