A publication of the Technical Assistance Collaborative, Inc. and
Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities
Housing Task Force
Authored By:
Ann O'Hara
Emily Miller
Published By:
Technical Assistance Collaborative, Inc
Boston, MA
(617) 742-5657
www.tacinc.org
Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities Housing Task Force
Washington, DC
(202) 785-3388
www.c-c-d.org/tf-housing.htm
Independence and integration are among the most important values and
goals shared by people with disabilities, their families, and advocates. A home of ones own either rented or
owned is the cornerstone of independence for people with disabilities. When a person with a disability has a decent,
safe, and affordable home, then he or she has the opportunity to become part of the
community. With stable housing, people with
disabilities are able to achieve other important life goals, including education, job
training, and employment.
Unfortunately, millions of people with disabilities today stand little
chance of obtaining decent and affordable housing. This
is particularly the case for people with the most severe disabilities who receive federal
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits. Because
of their extremely low incomes, people with disabilities receiving SSI cannot afford
decent housing without some type of government housing assistance. Despite this need, government housing officials
and affordable housing providers have made little effort to acknowledge or address the
extreme housing crisis confronting people with disabilities.
The lack of response from the nations affordable housing system
means that the disability community has been going it alone when seeking
solutions to this housing crisis. During
recent years, many groups within the disability community including consumer and
self-advocacy groups, families, housing advocates, and non-profit disability organizations
have been trying to do what the affordable housing system has yet to do. On their own, and with little help from the
housing system, these groups have been struggling to expand affordable housing
opportunities for people with disabilities in local communities. Despite their best efforts, all of the evidence
suggests that the disability community working alone cannot solve this problem. We need the housing system to become actively
involved!
As housing advocates for people with disabilities, the Consortium for
Citizens with Disabilities Housing Task Force (CCD Housing Task Force) and the Technical
Assistance Collaborative, Inc. (TAC) are very concerned about the lack of progress to
expand affordable housing for people with disabilities.
To help understand these issues more clearly, TAC and the CCD Housing Task
Force set out to assess and document what is and isnt working in local communities
to expand affordable housing opportunities for people with disabilities. The purpose of our work, which was partially
funded through a grant from Fannie Mae (previously
known as the Federal National Mortgage Association), was three-fold:
1.
To document the barriers which have constrained the
disability communitys housing efforts;
2.
To identify existing examples of communities that
have moved most successfully towards best practices to expand both
homeownership and rental housing options for people with disabilities; and
3.
To assess the need for a comprehensive program of
housing technical assistance targeted to the disability community.
· Finding
#1 State and local housing officials do not
give a high priority to the housing needs of people with disabilities.
· Finding
#2 Most Public Housing Agencies are not
working with the disability community to expand housing options.
· Finding
#3 Most disability organizations have not
established relationships or partnerships with affordable housing providers and funders.
· Finding
#4 The disability communitys knowledge
of the key federal housing programs and policies that can assist people with disabilities
is very limited.
· Finding
#5 The disability community has very limited
knowledge of Fannie Mae housing programs targeted to people with disabilities.
· Finding
#6 Many disability organizations do not
understand how participation in HUDs Consolidated Plan process can help expand
homeownership and rental housing for people with disabilities.
· Finding
#7 Most homeownership coalitions serving
people with disabilities have only achieved modest results in terms of the number of
people who have become homeowners.
· Finding
#8 With more housing knowledge, capacity, and
technical assistance, disability organizations can help expand access to affordable
housing.
From these findings, it is clear that the disability community is at a
critical point with respect to affordable housing. People
with disabilities are seeking independent housing in increasing numbers, but there is very
little affordable housing available. Most
disability organizations do not have affordable housing expertise. They have difficulty understanding the
complexities of government housing programs and policies and are uncertain about how to
approach the affordable housing system.
Although successful examples of partnerships between the housing system and the disability community do exist, they are the exception rather than the rule. Most housing advocates for people with disabilities still encounter major barriers particularly discrimination when trying to engage the affordable housing system. Within the housing system, government officials and affordable housing providers have not yet demonstrated a commitment to make housing for people with disabilities a priority. As a result, with some notable exceptions, the nations affordable housing funders and providers are not working in partnership with the disability community to address this housing crisis.
During the past four years, TAC and the CCD Housing Task Force have
worked together to sustain and expand the federal housing programs that can help people
with disabilities obtain affordable housing. Working
as a broad-based coalition, TAC and the CCD Housing Task Force have successfully advocated
for over 40,000 new federal rent subsidies for people with disabilities.
New
opportunities have also been created for non-profit disability organizations to directly
receive and administer federal housing funds. Through
annual policy reports, the Opening Doors
publication, and websites, TAC and the CCD Housing Task Force disseminate important,
timely, and user-friendly affordable housing information directly to the
disability community.
Throughout this
effort, TAC and the CCD Housing Task Forces goals have remained the same:
· To ensure people with disabilities receive their fair
share of government-funded affordable housing resources, based on their critical
need for housing assistance; and
· To assist the disability community to successfully engage the
nations affordable housing system in a partnership to expand housing opportunities
for people with disabilities in every community.
The findings
from Going It Alone confirm that much more work
needs to be done for these goals to be accomplished.
TACs housing publications and monographs posted on the Internet are
certainly helpful but cannot solve the fundamental problem of the
disconnect between the disability community and the affordable housing system. It is often remarked that these two systems
speak different languages and have difficulty understanding each others
programs and policies. The stigma and discrimination experienced by people with
disabilities, and the Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) attitude of many communities, have also
been major barriers to successful partnerships.
The
publication of Going It Alone is not
intended to point the finger or affix blame for the severe shortage of decent
and affordable housing for people with disabilities. Rather, its intent is to identify and
understand the barriers to housing that do exist for people with disabilities, and propose
practical and feasible solutions to overcome these barriers. It is clear that a more effective strategy must be
adopted one that builds the capacity of the disability community to successfully
engage and work within the affordable housing system.
The findings in Going It Alone document the need for a new housing
technical assistance initiative the Housing Center for People with Disabilities
that can bring the two systems together. The
primary objective of the Housing Center for People with Disabilities will be to help the
disability community develop the knowledge and skills needed to become a successful
player in state and local affordable housing programs and decision making. The target audience will include people with
disabilities, their families, housing advocates, service providers, and affordable housing
officials across the country.
The outcome will
be more collaborative partnerships between the disability community and the affordable
housing system, leading to a significant expansion of homeownership and rental housing
opportunities for people with disabilities. To
illustrate that these collaborations can work, this report summarizes two successful
rental and homeownership strategies that have been implemented in Oakland County, Michigan
and the State of Texas.
In the end,
innovation in affordable housing practices benefiting people with disabilities will also
depend on intangibles, including a culture of innovation and change, and the leadership it
takes to sustain the process of systems change. However,
the authors of this report firmly believe that these dynamics can be fostered and enhanced
by providing more support and housing technical assistance to the disability community as
they continue to work to achieve their housing goals.
The Housing Center for People with Disabilities can help make those goals a
reality.
Chapter
1 The Need
Unfortunately,
this demand is not well understood or acknowledged by most affordable housing funders and
housing providers. Many federal, state, and
local affordable housing officials and housing providers are still unaware of the
housing needs or housing crisis confronting people with disabilities. Some affordable housing providers still think
disability service providers not the affordable housing system should pay
for housing for people with disabilities. Many
affordable housing officials and housing providers do not understand that recent
innovations in Medicaid and other support service funding streams mean that: (1) many people with disabilities no longer are
forced to live in high density residential settings; and
(2) Medicaid does not pay for the costs of permanent housing in the
community.
Housing
officials also need to be reminded that, for over 25 years, people with disabilities have
been eligible for federal housing assistance. However,
until a few years ago, there was a lack of data on the nature and extent of the housing
needs of people with disabilities. Without
good data it was difficult for the disability community to successfully engage federal
housing policy makers and affordable housing providers and ensure people with disabilities
received their fair share of government-funded housing resources. Fortunately, good data is now available which
accurately describes the severe housing problems experienced by people with disabilities,
and it documents their priority need for government housing assistance.
In March of
1999, TAC and the CCD Housing Task Force published Priced
Out in 1998, a comprehensive report on the housing crisis experienced by people with
disabilities. This report was significant
because it documented that the poverty experienced by people with disabilities
including over 3 million adults with disabilities receiving SSI benefits is the
underlying cause of the housing crisis. Priced Out in 1998 compared SSI benefit income to
local housing costs in all 50 states and within 2,646 US Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) housing market areas and concluded:
· People with disabilities receiving SSI benefits are among the lowest
income households in the United States. The
national average income of an individual with a disability receiving SSI is only 24.4
percent of the typical one-person household (or median) income.
· In 1998 there was not one county or metropolitan area in the
United States where a person receiving SSI benefits could actually follow federal
guidelines for housing affordability and pay only 30 percent of their monthly income for
rent. Instead, as a national average, a
person with a disability must spend 69 percent of his or her monthly SSI monthly income to
rent a modest one-bedroom apartment at HUDs Fair Market Rent. The national average for a modest studio
apartment is 58.5 percent of SSI monthly income.
· Virtually all adults with disabilities receiving SSI benefits who do
not have government housing assistance qualify under federal guidelines as households with
worst case housing needs. Worst
case housing needs are defined as paying more than 50 percent of income for housing
costs or living in severely substandard housing. A
1996 HUD report indicates that people with disabilities are more likely, than elderly or
family households, to experience both these housing problems.[1]
· The information in Priced Out in
1998 was intended to be a wake-up call for both federal housing policy makers and the
nations affordable housing officials. During
the early 1990s, the federal government made no effort to accurately assess the housing
needs of people with disabilities. Recent
estimates have been more realistic, including a 1999 HUD report which documented that 25
percent of the 5.4 million households in the United States with worst case
housing needs approximately 1.4 million households were people with
disabilities.[2]
The CCD Housing
Task Force and TAC have estimated that as many as 1.8 million people with disabilities
receiving SSI benefits may have severe housing problems.
In addition to SSI recipients, there are hundreds of thousands of people
with disabilities who receive other disability benefits (i.e., Social Security Disability
Income) who also qualify for government housing assistance.
Housing advocates in the disability community know first hand that millions
of people with disabilities today are at-risk of homelessness because they
live in severely substandard or inadequate housing, or pay most of their extremely limited
income for rent. In the United States today,
people with disabilities are undoubtedly the most poorly housed of any group eligible for
government housing assistance.
Advocates for
people with disabilities are also becoming more concerned about people with disabilities
living with aging parents. These adults with
disabilities have had stable housing with their families because their parents
challenged the system and choose to keep their child in the community instead of resorting
to an institution. These adults with
disabilities have always been a part of community life.
Now their parents are in their 70s and 80s and community-based housing is a
priority need for their adult children. The
Arc of the United States estimates that approximately 200,000 adults with mental
retardation and other developmental disabilities are in need of housing and services in
the community. These parents are looking to
the affordable housing system to provide them with an answer to the question Where
will my child live after I die? Thus
far, there are few, if any, good answers to this question.
Given the
magnitude of the housing crisis confronting people with disabilities, why hasnt the
federal government which funds over 4 million units of subsidized housing for
low-income households done more to address the housing problems which impact the
most vulnerable of our nations citizens? The
answer to this question lies at least in part in major changes that have
taken place in federal government housing policies and programs. During the 1990s, just as greater numbers of
people with disabilities were seeking housing, federal housing policies were actually
exacerbating the housing problems of people with disabilities. These changes are discussed in Chapter 2.
[1] News Release: Statement by Henry Cisneros on Worst Case Needs in Housing. US Department of Housing and Urban Development, March 14, 1996.
[2] Waiting In Vain: An update on Americas Rental Housing Crisis. US Department of Housing and Urban Development, March 1999.
Chapter
2 Policies, Barriers, and
Opportunities
The 1990s were a
period of significant change in government housing programs and policies. New federal housing policies fundamentally altered
the affordable housing delivery system, including who controls federal housing funds spent
at the state and local level. For the most
part, the disability community has been slow to adapt and respond to this new environment
which creates both barriers and opportunities for expanding affordable housing for
people with disabilities.
Devolution of Federal
Housing Funding Decisions to State/Local Government
During the
1990s, the federal government gave state and local housing officials and Public Housing
Agencies (PHAs) more control over how federal housing funds are used in their
jurisdictions. This policy direction began
with the enactment of the National Affordable Housing Act of 1990 and culminated with the
passage of the Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act of 1998. Collectively, these new laws have fundamentally
altered the landscape of affordable housing funding and decision making. Now state and local housing officials and PHAs
not the federal government decide which low-income populations will
benefit from federally funded housing activities. These
changes are not well understood by many disability organizations that still think HUD is
the only key player.
The
Consolidated Plan and the Public Housing Agency Plan
In exchange for
more control over federal housing programs, state and local government housing officials
and PHAs must now develop and submit strategic housing plans to HUD each year. These plans the Consolidated Plan and the
PHA Plan contain the specific housing strategies and activities that will be
implemented in the jurisdiction to meet affordable housing needs. These plans control the expenditure of over $15
billion in annual federal housing funding which can be used for first-time homeownership
programs, rental housing production, and tenant-based rental subsidies benefiting
low-income households. The plans also
determine which population groups (e.g. elderly households, family households, disabled
households) will have priority for federal public housing units and Section 8 rent
subsidies.
By law, both the
Consolidated Plan and the PHA Plan should be developed with input from citizens, including
the disability community. However, the track
record for meaningful participation by the disability community is poor. Many disability organizations are unfamiliar with
the Consolidated Plan and the PHA Plan, or arent sure how to influence the housing
strategies included in these plans.
Because the
disability community is not adequately represented during the development of these plans,
people with disabilities are not getting their fair share of the federal
housing resources that these plans control.
Despite a
requirement that local and state officials consult with the disability community when
preparing the Consolidated Plan, meaningful consultation rarely occurs. Even when the disability community is asked to
provide housing needs data for the Consolidated Plan, state and local housing officials
usually do not allocate a fair share of the federal housing resources
available to people with disabilities. Because
of the broad latitude given to state and local housing officials, HUD will not necessarily
reject a Consolidated Plan simply because it does not address the housing needs of people
with disabilities unless that
issue is brought to HUDs attention by the disability community.
Unfortunately,
the nations affordable housing programs are not organized or delivered
systematically, but rather through a myriad of complicated programs and housing agencies
that have no relationship to one another. Navigating
through this maze has proved very difficult for the disability community. While there are some provisions in federal law and
regulation designed to foster collaboration between government housing officials and the
disability community including the Consolidated Plan housing advocates for
people with disabilities have not learned how to capitalize on them.
The disability
community is severely constrained by its limited knowledge of federal housing policies and
programs. When disability housing advocates
attempt to engage housing officials, they often report that the information they receive
is either confusing or not useful to them. Because
every federal housing program is different, it is difficult to know exactly what questions
to ask, or to learn how programs can best be used to expand housing for people with
disabilities.
Even local and
state housing officials who administer certain federal housing programs are usually
unfamiliar with the rules and policies that govern other programs outside of their
administrative authority. For example, PHAs
have information on the public housing and Section 8 voucher program, but not on the
federal HOME and Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) programs. Housing advocates for people with disabilities
often ask, If you cant get useful and reliable information from the housing
system, where can you get it?
HUD Budget Cuts
For more than a
decade, the federal government has dramatically reduced its financial commitment to
affordable housing. National housing
advocates report that, after adjustments for inflation, HUDs budget has been cut by
more than 75 percent since the mid-1980s. More
than any other group eligible for housing assistance, people with disabilities have been
negatively affected by the decline in federally funded housing and by cuts in the HUD
budget.
Because of the
extremely low incomes of people with disabilities receiving SSI benefits, government
housing programs that meet their needs must include a rental subsidy or an
operating subsidy to ensure affordability. Unfortunately
these housing subsidies are expensive and have been most affected by the budget cuts at
HUD. Long-term rent subsidies for Section 8
project-based assistance, for the development of high quality public housing, and the
Section 811 Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities Program (Section 811) have
either been eliminated altogether or drastically reduced from previous funding levels.
The Section 811
budget which funds capital grants, operating subsidies, as well as tenant-based
rental assistance for people with disabilities has been cut by more than 50 percent
since 1995. This funding reduction has been a
serious blow to non-profit disability organizations struggling to expand the stock of
affordable housing. Most non-profit
disability organizations relied exclusively on the Section 811 program to expand housing
for people with disabilities receiving SSI benefits.
As Section 811 funding was cut, and the cost of developing housing
increased, housing production levels for people with disabilities have declined
dramatically.
Discrimination
The stigma
experienced by people with disabilities persists in many communities, and makes accessing
or developing affordable housing difficult. Often,
PHAs, housing developers, and city officials would rather avoid serving people with
disabilities than face the possible controversy. In
the worst cases, these housing providers and officials share the prejudices and fears of
the community at large. During the last
decade, federal housing policies have been driven by a desire to exclude people with
disabilities from certain federal housing developments and have therefore reinforced the
stigma and discrimination experienced by people with disabilities every day.
It is important
to remember that, until the enactment of the Fair Housing Act Amendments (FHAA) of 1988,
it was legal in the United States to discriminate against a person with a disability
attempting to rent or buy a home.
Federal laws now
protect people with disabilities from housing discrimination but these legal protections
are often not well understood. In fact, many
disability organizations are uncertain about how these laws actually work and how to
address housing discrimination when it occurs.
Despite all the barriers identified above, a few states and
communities are making real headway in expanding affordable housing for people with
disabilities. In these localities, housing
officials are responding to the sustained housing advocacy efforts of the disability
community, and are implementing innovative and collaborative affordable housing strategies
benefiting people with disabilities. Obviously,
the specific approaches adopted in local communities vary, depending on circumstances and
opportunities. However, TAC and the CCD
Housing Task Force has found two common elements in most successful efforts:
1.
The creative use of all available affordable housing programs to expand
homeownership and rental housing options including so-called generic
housing programs rather than relying exclusively on the Section 811 Supportive
Housing for Persons with Disabilities Program; and
2.
Strong partnerships and collaborations between the
affordable housing system and the disability community to ensure that the housing created
will meet the housing needs and preferences of people with disabilities.
Using Generic Affordable Housing Programs
During the last
decade, cuts in government housing programs prompted the affordable housing system to
become more creative in its mission to expand affordable housing opportunities for low and
moderate-income households. Generic
affordable housing programs not targeted specifically to people with disabilities such as
HOME, CDBG, the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program, and Section 8 vouchers are now the
core components of state and local affordable housing strategies. These flexible programs have attracted both public
and private sector developers to work in partnership with the housing system on innovative
homeownership and rental housing strategies. Using
these generic rental and homeownership housing programs, housing finance
agencies and government housing officials are learning how to write down the
costs of rental and homeownership initiatives and leverage private financing in order to
serve more low and moderate income households.
Entrepreneurial
PHAs have learned that the Section 8 voucher program is also an effective housing resource
when targeted to address important housing policy objectives. The Section 8 program, which currently assists
over 1.4 million households nationwide, is now used to help families move from welfare to
work, to help minority households move to more integrated neighborhoods, to re-unite
families whose children have been in foster care, and to help people with disabilities who
have been negatively affected by elderly only housing designation. In the very near future, Section 8 vouchers will
also be available to help very low-income households, including people with disabilities,
buy their first home.
Despite the
potential in these new creative approaches to expand affordable housing,
generic affordable housing programs are not being used in a systematic way to
address the housing needs of people with disabilities.
The disability community does not benefit from these programs because:
· The disability community does not have the housing knowledge or
capacity to understand the complex laws, regulations, and policies governing these
programs;
· The disability community has not positioned itself to successfully
influence state and local housing strategies included in the Consolidated Plan or the PHA
plan; and
· The stigma and discrimination experienced by people with disabilities
deter state and local housing officials from making the housing needs of people with
disabilities a priority unless there is a sustained advocacy effort from the disability
community itself.
Building New Partnerships and New Approaches
To successfully target these
generic affordable housing resources, the disability community must learn more
about how these programs can be used to meet the specific housing needs and preferences of
people with disabilities. They also must
become more involved in the development of state and local affordable housing strategies
and build new partnerships with public and private housing agencies. In other words, to benefit from all of the
resources within the affordable housing system, the disability community must learn to
become a player in the housing system.
This approach is
essential but not easy. Consistent with the
direction in federal housing policy, state and local government housing officials have
re-directed their efforts to the working poor and moderate income
households. Within this policy context, there
are no built-in fiscal or policy incentives for government housing officials and
affordable housing providers to collaborate on housing for households with the lowest
incomes particularly people with disabilities receiving SSI benefits. Housing advocates for people with disabilities
need to learn how to create partnerships with the housing system and to leverage
generic affordable housing resources for people with disabilities.
Most government
housing officials and housing providers admit that they know little or nothing about the
housing needs or housing preferences of people with disabilities. However, successful collaborations can occur if
the disability community takes the lead to assertively engage and educate state and local
housing officials in a dialogue about the housing needs of people with disabilities and
how they can be addressed.
Because some
housing officials may still be unwilling to address the housing needs of people with
disabilities, the disability community must also learn how to monitor the housing
activities of the state and local government officials and hold them accountable for their
decisions. These officials have a legal
responsibility to address priority housing needs in local communities and to
address the barriers and impediments to fair housing choices for people with disabilities. In other words, they have an obligation to provide
a fair share of government housing funding to meet the needs of people with
disabilities who live in their communities.
It is clear that
the disability community will fail in its housing advocacy efforts if outdated models and
strategies are followed and if they fail to capitalize on new affordable homeownership and
rental housing strategies. During the past
four years, there have been several national rental and homeownership initiatives which
hold great promise for people with disabilities particularly if they can be linked
to generic affordable housing programs and strategies and if they can
be implemented in partnership with affordable housing funders and providers.
Currently, there
are 21 Fannie Mae HomeChoice homeownership coalitions for people with disabilities that
exist in 19 states and localities across the country.
These coalitions need to gain the housing expertise and experience necessary
to be able to capitalize on generic affordable homeownership resources and
strategies that are part of broader community efforts to expand homeownership for
low-income households. They also need to
learn how to leverage both public and private financing for their homeownership
coalitions, including a new and important opportunity to use Section 8 vouchers for
homeownership initiatives targeted to people with disabilities.
On the rental
housing side, new Section 8 vouchers created by Congress exclusively for people with
disabilities can be the basis for new partnerships between PHAs and the disability
community to expand rental housing opportunities. Congress
has also funded new Section 811 tenant-based rental assistance resources that for
the first time can be administered directly by non-profit disability organizations. Pending reforms in the Section 811 program may
also permit disability organizations to develop more innovative financing models
specifically designed to leverage the generic affordable housing resources
described above. The disability community
must be prepared to capitalize on these new rental and homeownership opportunities for
people with disabilities, some of which are outlined in the next chapter.
[1] Recent Research Results: A Newsletter from HUD USER. Office of Policy Development and Research, US Housing and Urban Development. March 1998.
[2] Opening Doors: Recommendations for a Federal Policy to Address the Housing Needs of People with Disabilities. TAC and the CCD Housing Task Force, Boston, MA. September 1996.
During the past
several years, there have been several new homeownership and rental housing initiatives
targeted to people with disabilities including:
· New Section 8 voucher programs targeted exclusively to people with
disabilities; and
· The Home Of Your Own (HOYO) and Fannie Mae HomeChoice homeownership
coalitions.
Anecdotal
evidence suggests that in a very limited number of communities and states
these new housing initiatives have brought about a significant expansion of affordable
housing for people with disabilities. In a
few instances, the availability of these programs has actually fostered the development of
partnerships and coalitions of housing and disability organizations working together to
address the housing crisis facing people with disabilities.
However, TAC and
the CCD Housing Task Force have learned that most housing advocates in the
disability community are still struggling to expand rental and homeownership opportunities
in their communities. In most communities,
disability housing advocates still lack the knowledge and housing capacity to capitalize
on these opportunities. They are also having
difficulty engaging and obtaining the buy-in of state and local housing
officials. As a result, the potential within
these housing initiatives to significantly expand housing opportunities for people with
disabilities in a more systematic way has not yet been realized.
The Section 8
Housing Choice Voucher program is targeted by law to help extremely low-income people,
including people with disabilities, afford housing of their choice in the private rental
market. Households with Section 8 vouchers
pay a limited amount of their monthly income (usually 30 percent) for rent. The Section 8 voucher pays a rent subsidy directly
to the landlord that is based on the cost of modestly priced rental housing in
the locality. To use the Section 8 voucher
successfully, the household must locate housing that is affordable and approvable under
HUD guidelines, and the owner of the rental housing must agree to accept the Section 8
payment.
Overall,
the Section 8 program has been a very successful mechanism to help very low-income people
solve their housing problems. Since the
program began in 1974, HUD has distributed over 1.4 million vouchers to PHAs, who
administer the program and distribute the vouchers to households on their Section 8
waiting lists. However, for people with
disabilities and their housing advocates, the Section 8 program has many barriers and
impediments that are difficult to overcome.
Section 8 is a
complicated program with a myriad of confusing rules and regulations. Since the enactment of public housing reform
legislation in 1998, Section 8 has also become a much more flexible program. Through the PHA Plan process, PHAs are given a
great deal of autonomy to determine which low income households will benefit from the
Section 8 vouchers available and whether the PHA will use Section 8 vouchers for
homeownership initiatives.
The Section 8
program is also complicated because it involves several key players including the
PHA, the low-income household, and a willing landlord in the private rental market. Obtaining a Section 8 voucher does not guarantee
housing. Once a voucher is obtained, the
household has approximately 60 days to locate housing within Section 8 rent limits that
meets HUDs Housing Quality Standards. The
landlord must also be willing to accept the rent subsidy.
Historically,
the disability community has had great difficulty trying to use the Section 8 program. Disability organizations generally are not sure
how to approach PHAs and do not understand the complicated rules PHAs use to administer
the program. People with disabilities have
problems when they try to apply and get on Section 8 waiting lists, and often are removed
from waiting lists for procedural reasons. If
a person with a disability actually succeeds in getting a Section 8 voucher, they often
have difficulty finding a willing landlord or a rental unit that meets Section 8
guidelines. Successful Section 8 programs for
people with disabilities must offer assistance to overcome these bureaucratic and
programmatic barriers.
For
the past four years, Congress has appropriated funding for 30,000 Section 8 vouchers to
address the loss of housing for people with disabilities from the implementation of
elderly only housing policies. Since
1997, Section 8 vouchers have been offered by HUD to PHAs willing to document the loss of
housing for people with disabilities in their jurisdiction.
Another 10,000 vouchers were appropriated for the Section 8 Mainstream
Program for People with Disabilities, which is a set-aside of Section 8 vouchers
specifically for people with disabilities.
The
process of getting these vouchers distributed to people with disabilities who need them
has not gone smoothly. A TAC survey of
all PHAs in 1999 documented the following problems:
·
The vast majority of PHAs are simply unwilling to administer Section 8
vouchers targeted to people with disabilities.
· Many PHAs report a lack of capacity to administer additional vouchers
for people with disabilities who may need extra help to use the voucher;
· Some PHAs that have these vouchers have not distributed them. TAC and the CCD Housing Task Force has found that
these PHAs do not have positive working relationships with disability organizations.
[1] Based on the number of PHAs that applied for the Section 8 Mainstream Program for People with Disabilities in 1997, 1998, and 1999.
This lack of
interest and poor track record of PHAs prompted Congress to direct HUD to also permit
non-profit disability organizations to administer some of these Section 8 vouchers. Disability organizations that want to participate
are having difficulty demonstrating the capacity to administer the Section 8 voucher
program or are having difficulty getting new vouchers from HUD. Others who want to apply in a partnership with a
PHA report difficulty convincing the PHA to apply with them. As a result, hundreds of these Section 8 vouchers
have yet to be given to the people with disabilities who desperately need them.
This lack of
success is troubling but not surprising. Very
few disability organizations have a history of good working relationships with PHAs. Most do not know how the Section 8 voucher program
actually works, and do not know how to get people with disabilities on Section 8 waiting
lists. They also do not know that people with
disabilities can receive a priority for Section 8 vouchers through the PHA Plan process. This knowledge is essential for people with
disabilities to fully benefit from the Section 8 voucher program the cornerstone of
the federal governments current rental housing policies
To increase
access to Section 8 vouchers for people with disabilities, disability organizations must
be able to:
1.
Work more collaboratively with PHAs to expand access
to Section 8 vouchers for people with disabilities;
2.
Develop the capacity to administer the Section 8
voucher program themselves if PHAs are unwilling; and
3.
Learn how to use the PHA Plan process to preserve
and expand access to both public housing and Section 8 vouchers for people with
disabilities.
PHAs must also
work with the disability community to address some of the other major barriers within the
Section 8 and public housing programs that negatively impact people with disabilities. The disability community needs to become more
aware of PHA efforts to designate elderly only housing and ensure that this
loss of housing for people with disabilities is adequately addressed by the PHA through
new Section 8 vouchers and by targeting other affordable housing programs to people with
disabilities.
People with
disabilities and their housing advocates need help understanding complex Section 8 and
public housing regulations. They also need
assistance with the housing search and the landlord acceptance process, and may need
access to security deposit or utility deposit funds or other one-time housing related
needs. Innovative collaborations created
between PHAs and the disability community can lead to much better utilization of Section 8
and public housing by people with disabilities, including the potential for new
homeownership opportunities. One of these
collaborations is described as a best practice in Chapter 6.
Fannie Mae is a
congressionally chartered, shareholder-owned company, and the nations largest source
of mortgage funds. Fannie Mae has committed
to provide one trillion dollars in targeted lending for 10 million homes by the end of the
decade.[1]
Fannie Mae
HomeChoice is a mortgage product tailored to meet the unique needs of low- and very
low-income people with disabilities. With the
development of HomeChoice, Fannie Mae became the only secondary market agency to tailor a
mortgage product to people with disabilities that addressed some of the barriers people
with disabilities face when trying to buy a home. HomeChoice
mortgages offer flexibility in the areas of loan-to-value ratios, amount of down payment,
qualifying ratios, and establishing credit. These
features make HomeChoice a unique program for helping people with disabilities with
limited incomes become homeowners.
The HomeChoice
mortgage product is made available through 22 homeownership coalitions implemented in 19
states and localities across the country. Since
its inception in 1996, the HomeChoice mortgage product has helped approximately 250 people
with disabilities become first time homebuyers by emphasizing homeownership education,
pre- and post-purchase counseling, and other long-term supports that make it possible for
people with disabilities to succeed as homeowners.
The
homeownership coalition model includes a lead agency that coordinates the program in
partnership with a wide range of stakeholders from the housing, disability, and finance
fields.
Coalition
members can be consumer and family groups; housing finance agencies; lenders; state mental
health, mental retardation, and developmental disabilities agencies; independent living
centers; non-profit homeownership counseling organizations; and realtors. To be successful, the coalitions partners
must have the knowledge, skills, and commitment necessary to aggregate all resources
needed by people with disabilities interested in owning a home, including homebuyer
education and counseling, down-payment assistance, home modifications, legal assistance,
and the most advantageous mortgage financing.
Fannie
Maes HomeChoice coalition model built upon the earlier efforts of the National Home
of Your Own Alliance (HOYO). HOYO grew from a
locally based homeownership pilot program to a national effort funded by the
Administration on Developmental Disabilities within the US Department of Health and Human
Services. Many HOYO coalitions now offer the
Fannie Mae HomeChoice mortgage as well as other mortgage products that meet the needs of
people with disabilities.
People with
disabilities have unique circumstances with respect to mortgage underwriting, because
their income is typically derived from benefits rather than employment. Fannie Mae recognized that, while people with
limited benefit incomes have a greater need for decent and affordable housing, they also
have more stable long-term fixed incomes and are highly motivated to make their monthly
mortgage payments.
Both the HOYO
and HomeChoice initiatives also recognized that some people with disabilities,
particularly those with severe disabilities, might need a wide range of financial and
personal support services from public and non-profit housing and service agencies if they
were to realize their dream of owning their own home.
To meet these needs, the homeownership coalition model for people with
disabilities is intended to be a public/private partnership designed to provide a
comprehensive approach to first-time homeownership.
To ensure access
to the resources needed to achieve this goal, homeownership coalitions serving people with
disabilities need to establish legitimacy within the community and obtain buy-in from key
housing officials, non-profit organizations, and lenders.
Of particular importance is buy-in from government officials that control
access to federal housing funds, including HOME and CDBG funds, that can pay for first
time homeownership program costs such as down payment assistance, closing costs, and
accessibility modifications. These funds are
made available through the Consolidated Plan.
Thus far, most
homeownership coalitions have not been able to aggregate enough funding to serve large
numbers of people with disabilities. The
extremely low incomes of people with disabilities receiving SSI benefits, as well as
record high housing prices, have also proven to be difficult barriers for homeownership
coalitions to overcome. Coalition lead
agencies report great difficulty obtaining sufficient HOME and CDBG funds for the down
payment assistance and closing costs necessary to reach the lowest income households.
Often, lenders
are reluctant to modify their mortgage processing systems to accommodate the small volume
of loans that these homeownership programs are currently generating.
Homeownership
coalitions for people with disabilities should also be focusing on a new opportunity that
could help increase the number of people with disabilities who can achieve homeownership. New federal policies enacted in the Quality
Housing and Work Responsibility Act of 1998 will soon permit Section 8 vouchers to be used
for homeownership as well as rental housing. The
use of Section 8 housing assistance to make monthly mortgage payments will mean that more
people with disabilities will now potentially qualify for HomeChoice and other mortgage
products and may give private lenders an added incentive to participate in the HomeChoice
program.
In higher
cost housing markets, the Section 8 program will be able to provide $600 per month or more
as a direct subsidy to the monthly mortgage amount. However,
to take advantage of these new resources for homeownership, coalitions must now seek the
active participation of the state or local PHA that administers the Section 8 program.
As discussed
above, most disability organizations currently do not have the housing capacity to take
advantage of these new rental and homeownership initiatives. TAC and the CCD Housing Task Force recently
completed several surveys designed to document these capacity problems. The findings of these surveys are discussed in the
next chapter.
[1] A Home of Your Own Guide. Fannie Mae, 1998.
Chapter
4 Lessons from the
Field:
TAC and the CCD, Housing Task Force Surveys
For many years,
TAC and the CCD Housing Task Force have believed that the lack of collaboration and
partnerships between the disability community and the affordable housing system in
particular PHAs is the key barrier to addressing the housing crisis
confronting people with disabilities. Unless
the disability community learns how to play the housing game in local
communities, they will have no choice but to settle for the minimal outcomes now being
achieved in the homeownership and rental housing programs described in the previous
chapter.
To more
accurately measure the housing capacity of the disability community, and the level of
support received from the affordable housing system, TAC and the CCD Housing Task Force
completed three separate surveys in 1999. The
surveys were designed primarily to evaluate the knowledge, capacity, and level of
participation among non-profit disability organizations in community-based affordable
housing programs and to learn more about the implementation of the Fannie Mae HomeChoice
Mortgage Program and the Section 8 vouchers targeted to people with disabilities. As national housing advocates for people with
disabilities, TAC and the CCD Housing Task Force wanted to learn:
· The extent to which state and local disability groups were taking
advantage of homeownership and Section 8 rental housing initiatives for people with
disabilities;
· The disability communitys participation level in affordable
housing decision making at the state and local level through the Consolidated Plan and PHA
Plan processes, and their capacity to leverage generic affordable housing
funding controlled by government housing officials;
· The level of involvement of affordable housing funders, PHAs, and
other housing providers in expanding homeownership and rental housing opportunities for
people with disabilities including the extent of partnerships established between the
disability community and the affordable housing system; and
· The housing technical assistance needs of disability organizations and
housing agencies working to expand affordable housing opportunities for people with
disabilities.
Approach
TAC utilized
data from the following three housing surveys to reach the findings outlined in Going It Alone.
[NOTE: Copies of the surveys
are included in Appendices 1 3.]
Housing Capacity Survey of Non-Profit Disability
Organizations During 1999, TAC conducted a national survey of CCD Housing
Task Force members and affiliated organizations. Organizations
participating in the survey included state chapters of The Arc of the United States (Arc),
state chapters of the National Alliance of the Mentally Ill (NAMI), local affiliates of
the American Network of Community Options and Resources (ANCHOR), local chapters of Easter
Seals, state Developmental Disabilities Councils, and local chapters of the United
Cerebral Palsy Association. TAC received 96
survey responses representing a broad cross-section of consumer, family, advocacy, and
provider organizations within the disability community.
See map in Appendix 4.
Housing Capacity Survey of Fannie Mae HomeChoice
and Home of Your Own Coalitions During the summer of 1999, Fannie Mae
HomeChoice and Home of Your Own coalitions were surveyed.
Thirty-eight responses were received, including 19 from HomeChoice
coalitions, nine from HOYO coalitions, and 10 respondents who participated in both
programs. Respondents represented
homeownership coalitions in 23 states and territories across the country. TAC also conducted focus groups with two
coalitions, and interviewed staff in Fannie Mae Regional Offices. See map in Appendix 5.
Public Housing Agency Section 8 Survey
TAC individually contacted all of the PHAs in the country that currently administered the
Section 8 rental assistance program. Approximately
600 PHAs responded to TACs request for information and data. The responding PHAs included large, medium, as
well as small PHAs across the country.
Overview of Findings
The
survey data confirms that the disability communitys knowledge of federal housing
programs and important changes in federal housing policy is still very limited. For example, disability organizations reported
knowing about new Section 8 vouchers for people with disabilities but few knew that these
Section 8 rent subsidies could soon be used for homeownership or that non-profit
disability organizations, as well as PHAs, could administer them. Most respondents also did not know about or had
not participated in the Consolidated Plan or the PHA Plan processes in their community.
Despite
the need for more collaboration between housing and disability organizations, survey data
indicates that collaboration between the two systems is the exception, rather than the
rule. Yet these relationships are the
critical first step in developing more systematic strategies to address the
substantial and growing unmet housing need that exists.
In
many instances such as with most new Section 8 rental assistance funding
forming partnerships with housing agencies is currently the only feasible approach
to expand homeownership and rental opportunities in a significant way.
The survey data
also documents that very few disability organizations have been able to access
generic affordable housing programs such as HOME and CDBG to develop
homeownership and rental housing opportunities for people with disabilities. Significantly, those organizations that had
attempted to obtain these resources had a high rate of success. This finding indicates that with more housing
knowledge and capacity, disability organizations can begin to leverage the use of these
programs in local communities to address the unmet need for housing for people with
disabilities.
On a final positive note, the survey results provide strong evidence
of the value of providing affordable housing information and technical assistance directly
to the disability community. For example, the
survey responses clearly document the success of TAC and the CCD Housing Task Force
technical assistance efforts over the past three years to expand the disability
communitys knowledge and access to the special set-asides of Section 8 vouchers for
people with disabilities. During the spring
of 1999, TAC received over 200 inquiries from disability organizations seeking more
information about this Section 8 set-aside program.
Only 10 percent
of state/local housing officials, 18 percent of PHAs, and 26 percent of state/local
housing finance agencies have made housing for people with disabilities a high
priority for funding in their communities.[1] (See Table 2 above.) This finding was consistent with the PHA survey
data indicating one-third of PHAs believe there is no need for additional affordable
housing targeted to people with disabilities within their jurisdiction.
Finding #2 Most
PHAs are not helping the disability community expand housing opportunities for people with
disabilities. HUD data indicates that
only 10 percent of all PHAs collaborated with the disability community each year to seek
new Section 8 vouchers for people with disabilities.[2] (See Table 1 on page 19.)
Finding #3 Most disability organizations have
not established relationships or partnerships with affordable housing providers and
funders. Only 16 percent of homeownership
coalitions, and only 22 percent of CCD members and affiliates had formed partnerships with
PHAs to expand access to Section 8 vouchers. On
a more positive note, 48 percent of homeownership coalitions serving people with
disabilities had formed partnerships with government and non-profit housing agencies
progress which should eventually improve the outcomes of HomeChoice and Home of
Your Own coalitions.
Finding #4 Knowledge
of key federal housing programs and policies that can assist people with disabilities is
very limited. Only 14 percent of CCD
members and affiliates have an understanding of HUD regulations, only 19 percent know
about the PHA Plan and its impact on the Section 8 Program, and only 41 percent know that
Section 8 rent subsidies can be used to expand homeownership as well as rental housing
opportunities. (See Table 3) On a more positive note, 62 percent of CCD
members and affiliates know that new Section 8 vouchers are available to help people with
disabilities. This is a clear indication of
the success of the TAC and CCD Housing Task Force Opening
Doors publication.
[1] According to CCD members and affiliates responses in a TAC survey dated July 1999.
[2] According to HUD data regarding Section 8 Mainstream applicants years 1997, 1998, and 1999.


Finding #5 CCD members
and affiliates had very limited knowledge of Fannie Mae initiatives targeted to people
with disabilities. Most organizations
were not aware of the full array of Fannie Mae products available to assist people with
disabilities including HomeChoice, Community Living Program, and Retrofitting Mortgage. In fact, only 9 percent know about all three
products. (See Table 4 above.) 27 percent know only about HomeChoice, 3 percent
knew only about the Community Living Program, and 2 percent knew only about the
Retrofitting Mortgage.

At the time of the survey, only two homeownership coalitions had
assisted 60 or more households with disabilities to purchase a home. Both these coalitions have the active
participation of state and local housing officials, housing counseling agencies and
private lenders in the coalition model. The
majority of coalitions had assisted less than 30 households, and two were just getting
started and working to help their first household.
Finding
#8 With sufficient knowledge and capacity, disability
organizations can expand access to affordable housing funding. Of the 21 disability organizations that had
learned how to apply for HOME or CDBG funds, 14 reported success a 67 percent
success rate. A similar rate (56 percent) was
achieved by disability organizations seeking Federal Home Loan Bank Affordable Housing
Program funds for down-payment assistance or rental housing production. This finding underscores the future potential for
better housing outcomes from within the disability community, provided that their
housing knowledge and capacity issues can be addressed.
The survey data
clearly documents what TAC and the CCD Housing Task Force have known anecdotally for the
past five years that a lack of housing knowledge and housing capacity prevents the
disability community from successfully accessing government housing programs and from
influencing state and local affordable housing policies and strategies. And because their primary mission involves
the organization, financing, delivery, or advocacy for services and supports and
not affordable housing most disability organizations do not have the resources to
obtain this expertise on their own. The data
leads to a major conclusion the need for a comprehensive program of housing-related
direct technical assistance and training targeted specifically to the disability
community.
TAC and the CCD
Housing Task Force initially identified this technical assistance need in its first
housing policy report titled Opening Doors: Recommendations for a Federal Policy to Address
the Housing Needs of People with Disabilities published in 1996 which stated:
The CCD Housing Task Force recommends that a comprehensive
affordable technical assistance housing initiative be developed and funded that is
specifically targeted to people with disabilities, advocates, and service providers to:
· Increase affordable housing opportunities and choices for people with
disabilities in local communities through better access and use of federal, state, and
local affordable housing resources; and
· Strengthen the capacity of organizations representing people with
disabilities to assume a leadership role within their states and local communities on
affordable housing issues and strategies, with a specific emphasis on the Consolidated
Plan.
Specific Technical Assistance Needs
Most non-profit
disability organizations surveyed stated that technical assistance was needed to expand
their housing capacity and to assist them in establishing partnerships with the affordable
housing delivery system. The survey data
indicates that:
· 86 percent needed help to understand HUD policies and regulations;
· 68 percent requested assistance to expand homeownership opportunities;
· 60 percent needed help to engage local housing officials, and over 52
percent wanted help to learn how to effectively participate in affordable housing planning
processes in their communities, including the HUD mandated Consolidated Plan and the new
PHA Plan;
· 70 percent requested assistance to increase the availability of
Section 8 rent subsidies for people with disabilities;
· 57 percent requested assistance with affordable housing production
activities; and
· 61 percent wanted more information about best practices to
expand housing for people with disabilities.
Specific
recommendations for a comprehensive national program of housing technical assistance are
included in Chapter 5 of this report. Two
case studies of successful homeownership and rental housing initiatives for people with
disabilities are outlined in the Chapter 6. The
principles and strategies employed in these and other documented best
practices can be replicated across the country if more housing technical assistance
tailored to the needs of the disability community can be made available.
In response to the
findings in Going It Alone: The Struggle to Expand
Housing Opportunities for People with Disabilities, TAC and the CCD Housing Task Force
will seek funding to create the Housing Center for People with Disabilities, a multi-year
program of technical assistance, training, and knowledge dissemination on the affordable
housing issues that are critically important to people with disabilities, their families,
housing advocates, and service providers. The
goals of the Housing Center for People with Disabilities will be to create and strengthen
the capacity of the disability community to influence state and local affordable housing
policies and practices as well as to increase access by people with disabilities to
subsidized and affordable rental and homeownership resources.
The Housing Center for People with Disabilities will fill a critical
gap in current housing technical assistance and training activities, which have never been
targeted to address this need. The goals of
the Housing Center for People with Disabilities will be to:
· Create a technical assistance program framework to bring organizations
representing different disability populations together to work collaboratively on
community housing strategies;
· Help the disability community develop a better understanding of the
complexities of affordable housing delivery system including all the government housing
programs and resources which can benefit people with disabilities;
· Facilitate more dialogue and assist in the development of
collaborations and partnerships between the disability community and key stakeholders in
community-based affordable housing (i.e., PHAs, housing coalitions, non-profit groups,
affordable housing advocates, housing counseling agencies, and private lenders); and
· Build the capacity of the disability community to effectively
participate in state and local government housing strategic planning activities, (i.e.,
the Consolidated Plan and the PHA Plan) and to critically assess the opportunities and
barriers to a significant expansion of affordable housing for people with disabilities.
Since the
inception of the Opening Doors project in 1997,
TAC and CCD Housing Task Force have found that disability organizations have consistently
reported difficulty in obtaining useful affordable housing information. They report that affordable housing agencies and
government housing officials actually speak a different language which makes
communication and information sharing between the two systems difficult. When disability organizations approach the housing
system on their own, they become frustrated when their efforts do not produce meaningful
results. This lack of real collaboration
between the affordable housing system and the disability community
combined with a lack of knowledge of successful strategies that work are the major
barriers to a significant expansion of affordable housing for people with disabilities on
a national scale.
In most
communities and states across the country, people with disabilities and their housing
advocates continue to go it alone in their struggle to learn more about
affordable housing programs and in their efforts to create and sustain collaborations with
affordable housing funders and providers. One
disability organization responding to a TAC and CCD Housing Task Force survey noted,
The resources may be out there, but no one agency has the capacity to go get
them. Another stated, We
cant get straight answers from the housing folks, except that they always say
no!
On
the other hand, disability groups that have better knowledge of government housing
programs have had more success in getting the housing system to say yes. When they gain the knowledge and skills to
play the housing game, disability organizations have been able to create
partnerships with funders and non-profit housing providers and have been successful in
expanding homeownership and rental housing opportunities.
The survey data, site-visits to Fannie Mae Homeownership Coalitions, and TACs
technical assistance work with disability organizations across the country all document a
direct correlation between expanding the housing knowledge and capacity of disability
organizations and increasing the amount of affordable housing available to people with
disabilities.
Technical
assistance that is responsive to the housing needs of the disability community is not
currently available from traditional technical assistance programs. For example, HUD technical assistance programs are
directed to the agencies administering HUD funds, rather than to the disability community
who are the customers of HUDs housing programs. Current technical assistance programs funded
through private philanthropy either focus on broadly defined community development or
neighborhood re-vitalization goals, or concentrate specifically on the bricks and
mortar of housing development and rehabilitation.
It is clear that a new technical assistance program is needed to respond to
the growing housing crisis which is affecting people with disabilities and to meet the
unique needs of the disability community as described in this report. TAC and the CCD Housing Task Force are proposing
to meet this need by creating the Housing Center for People with Disabilities.
TAC and the CCD Housing Task Forces Housing Center for People
with Disabilities will provide the disability community with direct technical assistance
and training designed to:
· Increase the disability communitys knowledge and understanding
of the roles and responsibilities of organizations within the affordable housing system,
including: state and local Community Development departments; PHAs; state housing finance
agencies; private lenders; and non-profit or for-profit housing providers;
· Develop the disability communitys capacity to participate
effectively in the Consolidated Plan, the PHA Plan, and other community development
initiatives; to better assess which homeownership and rental housing approaches can work
best for people with disabilities in specific localities; and to collaborate more
effectively with state and local community development agencies, community based housing
providers, and lenders;
· Increase the disability communitys capacity to access more
Section 8 vouchers; to administer the Section 8 program directly when appropriate; and to
increase knowledge and understanding of new laws and regulations governing the use of
Section 8 in homeownership programs for people with disabilities; and to develop new
partnerships with PHAs administering the Section 8 and public housing programs;
· Expand the knowledge and capacity of the disability community to
access federal HOME and CDBG funding, Low Income Housing Tax Credits, the Federal Home
Loan Banks Affordable Housing Program, and other government programs that can expand
housing for people with disabilities;
· Educate the affordable housing delivery system regarding the housing
needs and preferences of people with disabilities, and the nature and extent of the
current housing crisis facing people with disabilities in virtually every community and
state; and
· Educate people with disabilities and their housing advocates on the
effective use of Fair Housing laws to protect people with disabilities from discrimination
in public and private housing programs.
With
this type of technical assistance program, the disability community will learn to
navigate through the complex affordable housing delivery system and have the
knowledge to capitalize on community housing activities that are already underway. In many instances, there are rental and
homeownership strategies that the disability community might be able to leverage, such as
first-time homeownership programs that could be modified to meet the special needs of
people with disabilities or rental housing initiatives which could include a
set-aside for people with disabilities.
To
be successful in local communities, it will be necessary to convince government housing
officials that the housing needs of people with disabilities should receive a high
priority for funding. TAC and the CCD Housing
Task Forces technical assistance will also focus on developing more successful
housing advocacy strategies and preparing the disability community to play a stronger role
in community housing decision making.
While
seeking funding for the Housing Center for People with Disabilities, TAC and the CCD
Housing Task Force will continue to provide accurate, informative, timely, and user friendly information on
affordable housing through the Opening Doors
website at www.c-c-d.org/doors.html,
and through the Opening Doors publication.[1]
Topics
covered include:
· Accessible Housing For People with Disabilities (Issue 10, June 2000)
· Challenging Choices: Housing Development 101 (Issue 9, December 1999)
· Affordable Housing in Your
Community (Issue 8, September
1999)
· Housing Crisis for People
with Disabilities (Issue 7, May
1999)
· Homeownership for People with
Disabilities (Issue 6, December
1998)
· Ten Year Anniversary of the
Fair Housing Act Amendments: Celebration or Vigil? (Issue 5, September 1998)
· The Section 8 Certificate
and Voucher Programs (Issue 4, April 1998)
· The Consolidated Plan (Issue 3, December 1997)
· Influencing Affordable
Housing Decisions In Your Community (Issue
2, September 1997)
·What Does the Designation of
"Elderly Only" Housing Mean for People Disabilities? (Issue 1, May 1997)
The CCD Housing
Task Force and TAC will also continue their efforts to influence the national housing
policy debate on behalf of people with disabilities, and continue to advocate for
legislative and policy changes that will overcome the significant barriers to affordable
housing that are outlined in Chapter 2. To
address the serious housing crisis confronting people with disabilities across the
country, and to ensure that federal, state, and local housing officials provide a
fair share of government housing funds to expand housing opportunities, the
CCD Housing Task Force and TAC make the following recommendations:
Substantially increase funding for federal housing
programs that can be targeted to meet the housing needs of people with disabilities.
Funding
increases are needed in the Section 811 Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities
Program and Section 8 Mainstream and designated housing voucher programs for
people with disabilities.
It is
recommended that at least one percent of the Section 811 funding (or $1 million, whichever
is less) go to fund a technical assistance program for non-profit disability organizations
administering the Section 811 tenant-based assistance program.
Provide a fair share of all generic
affordable housing resources to people with disabilities including public housing,
Section 8 Vouchers, HUD assisted housing developments, as well as HOME and CDBG funds. This objective should be accomplished through
better monitoring and enforcement of the Consolidated Plan, the PHA Plan, and the PHA
Allocation Plan for elderly only designated housing; through direct housing
technical assistance and training targeted to the disability community; and through new
legislation which should mandate a stronger link between priority housing needs of people
with disabilities identified in the Consolidated Plan process and the housing strategies
adopted by state and local government.
Improve the housing programs that already target
people with disabilities. The most
important reform needed is to provide Section 811 tenant-based assistance funding
exclusively to non-profit organizations working to assist people with disabilities, and to
eliminate the policy of converting Section 811 tenant-based rental assistance funding to
Section 8. The Section 811 program should
have no more than 25 percent of Section 811 funding set-aside for tenant-based rental
assistance. The single purpose corporation
requirement in Section 811 should be eliminated; Section 811 funds should configured more
flexibly to leverage Federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits, HOME, CDBG, bond financing,
housing trust funds, and other affordable housing financing mechanisms.
Require PHAs to address the priority housing needs
of people with disabilities in all PHA Plans. PHAs
seeking to designate elderly only housing should be required to set-aside at
least 33 percent of existing Section 8 turnover vouchers for people with
disabilities. PHAs should also be required to
adopt a mandatory preference in the Section 8 program for people with disabilities who
receive SSI benefits. The preference would be
triggered in any locality where the cost of modest housing exceeds 50 percent of monthly
SSI benefit amounts (e.g. the ratio of HUD Fair Market Rents to SSI income levels exceeds
50 percent).
Prevent housing discrimination and provide
reasonable accommodation for people with disabilities in all affordable
housing programs and policies. HUD should
be required to meet its obligation to Congress to immediately inventory all HUD assisted
housing developments to identify those that have implemented elderly only
housing policies. At least annually, HUD
should be required to report on the implementation of all elderly only
designated housing policies so that the true impact of elderly only designated
housing can be measured in every locality. Recipients
of government affordable housing funding should also be held accountable for compliance
with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, including the removal of all barriers
and impediments which impact people with disabilities access to affordable housing
programs. Training and technical assistance
should be made available to the disability community regarding the reasonable
accommodation and reasonable modification provisions of the Fair Housing
Act and Section 504, so that the disability community can be empowered to seek the
protections afforded them by federal laws and regulations.
[1] Opening Doors is made available free of charge through a generous grant from the Melville Charitable Trust. All issues of Opening Doors are available through the website, or can be obtained by calling TAC at (617) 742-5657 or emailing info@tacinc.org.
Fortunately, the
potential to significantly expand affordable housing opportunities for people with
disabilities is real. Across the country,
there are examples of best practices from Fannie Mae HomeChoice homeownership
coalitions and disability organizations working with the Section 8 rental voucher program
that demonstrate that much more can be done. While
each community and each state in the United States has unique opportunities and barriers
with respect to their affordable housing system, there are key components in both these
best practices models that have contributed to their success and can be
replicated nationally.
Key Components of Successful Homeownership Coalitions
·
Leadership
and dedication. Successful coalitions
have broad-based memberships made up of key actors in the housing and disability
communities. These members bring a wide range
of knowledge to the coalition and have the authority to make key decisions. The coalition, as a whole, shares a common vision
or philosophy and is committed to helping people with disabilities become homeowners. The existence of a lead coalition member, with
personnel dedicated to the homeownership efforts, provides a linkage between the various
participating agencies and coordinates the overall process a critical component to
developing a system for assisting people with disabilities.
·
Knowledge
of housing system and resources. A
successful homeownership coalition or at least the lead member has a clear
understanding of the existing housing system and resources.
Coalition members have the skills and knowledge to engage in a dialogue with state
and local housing officials and private lenders in order to access the valuable housing
resources necessary to facilitate the movement of people with disabilities into
homeownership.
·
Assistance
with the costs associated with buying and maintaining a home. The majority of people with disabilities live on
fixed limited incomes, restricting their ability to save money. Without financial assistance to help with the
costs of buying a home such as a down payment and closing costs and those
associated with maintaining a home such as making access modification or repairs
it is virtually impossible for people with disabilities to become homeowners. Successful homeownership coalitions acknowledge
this fact and work collaboratively to access state and local resources to alleviate some
of the financial burden of buying a home.
·
Housing
counseling. Effective homeownership
coalitions offer counseling that not only prepares a person with a disability to become a
homeowner, but also assists them after purchasing a home in adjusting to their role as
homeowner and the responsibilities that go along with it.
Successful coalitions offer pre-purchase counseling with professionals who have
knowledge of housing and mortgage financing and are also sensitive to the unique needs and
issues that people with disabilities face, such as limited incomes and poor credit
histories. Additionally, housing counselors
advocate for the homebuyer by serving as the linkage between the homebuyer and the
participating lender ensuring a seamless mortgage application and approval process.
Best Practice The
Texas Home Of Your Own Coalition
Since it began
its efforts in 1995, the Texas Home of Your Own Coalition has helped over 35 people with
disabilities become homeowners and maintain that housing without further assistance
making it one of the most successful joint Home of Your Own and HomeChoice coalitions to
date. Despite the lack of affordable housing
stock in some areas of the state, the coalition has been able to serve people of various
income levels, including those people with
incomes below 30 percent of the area median income.
Lead by United Cerebral Palsy, the strength of the coalition is evident in
its track record to date none of the homeowners have defaulted on his/her loan or
requested emergency housing assistance.
There are many
reasons for the Texas coalitions success. Its
ability to leverage resources and get buy-in from important stakeholders in both the
housing and disability communities is a key factor. The
coalition efforts have also been built upon the foundation of a shared philosophy that
sees the Texas Home of Your Own Coalition as a homeownership program, rather than a
disability program. This philosophy
dictates that the assistance provided by the coalition could meet the needs of any
homebuyer, and not just a homebuyer with disabilities.
Using this philosophy, the coalition was able to expand its membership
beyond the disability community, and leverage substantial resources for all of the costs
encountered by first-time homebuyers.
In addition to the shared philosophy that binds
the coalition members together, they also share a vast knowledge of the housing system and
resources and a strong advocacy commitment to make the system work for people
with disabilities. These strengths formed the
basis for the coalitions strategy to assertively engage state and local housing
officials and become active players in decisions about the allocation of housing
resources.
This strategy has paid off in the creation of a
viable partnership between the coalition and the Texas Department of Housing and Community
Affairs (DHCA).
In response to complaints from the disability
community that the state was not using enough of its Consolidated Plan resources to
address the affordable housing needs of people with disabilities, DHCA dedicated funds to
facilitate the start-up of the coalition HOYO initiative.
The clear linkage between the goals of the Home of Your Own Initiative and
the housing priorities documented in the Consolidated Plan increased the coalitions
access to HOME and CDBG funds for down payment, closing costs, and accessibility
modifications for people with disabilities who become homeowners.
To date, the state has invested over $850,000
into the coalitions efforts. The
coalition has also been very entrepreneurial in securing funding to offset its own
operating costs. Currently, people with
disabilities helped through the coalition are able to access up to $15,000 to use towards
down payment and closing costs or up to $20,000 to use for home modifications and barrier
removal. The coalition has also been able to
get donations of furniture and other home-related goods to help the new homeowner create a
home.
The coalitions knowledge of government
housing programs and policies is extremely helpful in engaging local housing officials to
support and fund homeownership for people with disabilities. Although at first the coalitions efforts
were mainly centered around Austin, the coalition has slowly expanded to other parts of
the state and partnered with more local housing officials.
One local PHA has decided to partner with the coalition on a pilot project
to educate Section 8 participants about homeownership.
This pilot will target those participants of the PHAs programs who are
strongly motivated to become homeowners. Through
a competition, 15 people will be selected to go through an intensive homebuyer counseling
program in conjunction with consumer credit counseling.
If this pilot is successful, the coalition may be able to partner with more
PHAs and replicate the homeownership efforts in other parts of the state.
The coalition also attributes its success to its
focus and coordination of the housing counseling component of the program and the
knowledge and capacity of the housing counseling agency involved in the coalition. Unlike many other housing counselors who have only
limited housing experience and little finance knowledge, the staff at the counseling
agency have backgrounds in real estate and mortgage financing. This knowledge base allows the counselors to not
only identify and address any potential financial problems such as poor credit
but also to prepackage all the loan documents so that the lender merely has to
process the paperwork creating a streamlined system.
The housing counseling agency shares the coalitions overall philosophy and did not develop a curriculum tailored to people with disabilities. Instead they utilize one model that is comprehensive enough to address the needs of any homebuyer. The strength of this model was recognized when the state housing agency developed a mandatory homebuyer education program based on the coalitions model.
Key Components of Successful Rental Assistance
Initiatives
· A coalition of disability
organizations. Most federal rental
assistance programs must provide assistance to all people with disabilities and not
exclusively to one disability population. Therefore,
comprehensive community-based rental assistance initiatives have a greater chance of
success when they involve numerous organizations, which, in the aggregate, can represent
the entire disability community.
· Partnerships with PHAs. Systematic approaches to expanding access to
tenant-based rental assistance currently cannot be successful without the active
participation of PHAs. PHAs currently control
over 1.4 million Section 8 rent subsidies, and have exclusive access to new rent subsidies
provided by Congress in the Section 8 HUD budget. They
also have the flexibility to create a preference for groups with high priority housing
needs, including people with disabilities.
· Knowledge of rental assistance
resources. Federal rental assistance
programs are highly regulated by HUD and have complex eligibility and program
participation requirements. Understanding the
roles and responsibilities of PHAs and state/local housing officials helps the disability
community to implement more effective partnership strategies. Knowing more specifics about the Section 8
program, the HOME tenant-based program, and the Section 811 tenant-based program builds
the capacity of the disability community to propose specific approaches which will best
expand rental housing opportunities for people with disabilities.
· Reasonable accommodation. People with
disabilities often need PHAs to provide reasonable accommodations to overcome the
bureaucratic barriers within rental assistance application and leasing procedures. The disability community can help rental
assistance administrators develop policies and practices that assist rather than
prevent people with disabilities from accessing affordable rental housing in the
private rental market.
· Housing search and housing
stabilization. Most private landlords are
not required to accept government rent subsidies. People
with disabilities need help to: identify willing landlords; negotiate the leasing process;
obtain financial assistance for moving costs including:
security and utility deposits; and other one-time assistance to maintain and
sustain successful tenancies. As tenants,
people with disabilities also occasionally need help dealing with landlord/tenant problems
that can jeopardize tenancies.
· Bridge subsidies. Rental assistance waiting lists can be very long,
and new rent subsidies can be difficult for housing agencies to obtain. Bridge subsidies a term which
describes temporary rent subsidies paid for by the support service system can help
people with disabilities obtain affordable housing while they are on Section 8 or other
government rent subsidy waiting lists. Once a
government subsidy is obtained, the bridge subsidy can be temporarily used by
another individual in need of housing assistance.
Best Practice Oakland
County Michigan Community Mental Health Authority
Housing is
one of the most important issues that we must address for our service system to succeed in
its effort to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities. This statement, made by Sandra Lindsey, Executive
Director of Oakland County Community Mental Health Authority (OCCMHA) in 1996, inaugurated
OCCMHAs Five Year Strategic Housing Plan to expand homeownership and rental housing
opportunities for people with disabilities in Oakland County, Michigan. The plan laid out a strategy to access up to 1,000
new units of decent and affordable housing for people with disabilities by the year 2001.
Oakland County
is a rapidly growing affluent urban county located north of Detroit. During the past 10 years, rental and homeownership
costs have risen dramatically, making it virtually impossible for a person with a
disability receiving SSI benefits to afford decent housing in Oakland County without some
form of housing assistance. During the early
1990s, several Oakland County non-profit organizations serving people with
disabilities struggled on their own to implement government funded rental and
homeownership programs without much success. OCCMHA
was determined to find a better way.
OCCMHA addressed
the lack of housing knowledge and capacity within the Oakland County disability community
by:
· Creating a OCCMHA Housing Office to coordinate the implementation of
the Housing Plan;
· Hiring key staff with experience in affordable housing; and
· Obtaining affordable housing technical assistance from experts in the
field of rental assistance for people with disabilities.
OCCMHA was
advised to capitalize on a new federal rent subsidy program the Section 8
Mainstream Program for People with Disabilities, which was available from HUD to PHAs
beginning in 1997. In the interim, they
succeeded in obtaining 100 new Shelter Plus Care and Supportive Housing Program federal
rent subsidies that could be used to help homeless people with disabilities their
most urgent need.
Beginning in
late 1996, OCCMHA began a series of meetings with the countys six PHAs. The meetings were intended to inform the PHA about
the opportunity to apply to HUD for new Section 8 vouchers and to request their support
and collaboration to obtain these vouchers for people with disabilities in Oakland County. They also began outreach efforts to other
disability organizations. This outreach
culminated in the re-activation of the Oakland County Housing and Homeless Coalition,
which now is the key housing advocacy group in the county.
During 1997, one
of the six PHAs agreed to partner with OCCMHA, and obtained 50 new Section 8 vouchers from
HUD. In 1998 and 1999, two other PHAs also
agreed to collaborate. As a result of
OCCMHAs efforts, over 250 new Section 8 vouchers have been added to the supply of
housing resources for people with disabilities in the county.
OCCMHA
understood that the Section 8 program was not the sole answer to their housing problems. Using its own funds, OCCMHA also developed several
other components to their rental assistance initiative, including a 100 unit Bridge
Subsidy Program to assist people with disabilities waiting for a Section 8, a Housing
Contingency Fund program to pay for one-time housing related expenses, and a Security
Deposit Program.
To facilitate
access to all these resources for people with disabilities, OCCMHA in collaboration
with the PHAs also developed a streamlined Section 8 application process providing
reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities who have difficulty navigating
through the complexities of the Section 8 program. OCCMHA
consumers receive assistance with the housing application and housing search process, and
have immediate access to housing stabilization services through Housing Specialists that
are part of the OCCMHA case management staff.
Although they
are very pleased with their progress thus far, OCCMHAs rental assistance strategies
were not 100 percent successful. Since 1997,
OCCMHA has been unsuccessful in its effort to obtain federal HOME tenant-based rental
assistance funding through the Oakland County Consolidated Plan process. These resources would help OCCMHA to expand the
Bridge Subsidy Program, which is now fully leased. OCCMHA
has not given up on this strategy, however, and plans to continue this advocacy effort
until it succeeds.
In the meantime,
OCCMHA staff will continue to collaborate with their PHA partners to apply for additional
Section 8 subsidies during 2000. A strategy
is also underway to expand access to the Fannie Mae HomeChoice Mortgage Program for OCCMHA
consumers who will for the first time be able to use their Section 8 rent
subsidy to help purchase a home. New HOME
funds have been provided by the county to a non-profit disability organization will also
help to expand homeownership opportunities for people with disabilities. The HOME funds will be used for down-payment
assistance and other homeownership program costs.
Appendix 1: HomeChoice/Home of Your Own Survey
Appendix 2: CCD Housing Task Force Members and Affiliates Survey
Appendix 3: Public Housing Agency Survey
Appendix 4: Map of CCD Responses to TAC and CCD Housing Task Force Survey
Appendix 5: Map of HomeChoice and Home of Your Own Coalition