Research Reports
New Study Discovers Actions to Improve Life for Residents with Disabilities in Federally-Assisted Housing
It is certain that disabled individuals and families, including those in federally assisted housing, face multiple challenges in gaining access to housing units and services that meet their needs—despite legal frameworks meant to help them (Levy et al. 2015; Dawkins and Miller 2015). Disability is very common, with an estimated 25% adults living with a disability, or around 61 million adults (Zhao et al. 2019). Some populations experience higher rates of disability, including women, older adults, adults who identify as American Indian/Alaska Native, adults with lower incomes, adults living in the South, and adults living in rural areas (Okoro et al. 2018; Zhao et al. 2019).
Recent research has highlighted the significant number of disabled residents living in some federally assisted housing programs (Dawkins and Miller 2015; Docter and Galvez 2019). Some 23% of residents in housing funded through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), including 24% of public housing residents and 19% those in project-based Section 8 rental units. For LIHTC properties, 12.4% of households reported at least one member as disabled in 2019 (HUD 2021).
A recent report by the Urban Institute, Improving Experiences for Residents with Disabilities in Federally Assisted Family Housing (October, 2022), examines challenges to reasonable accommodation processes and to service access. The research focused on three federal housing programs providing affordable rental housing to eligible households with low incomes: public housing, project-based rental assistance through the Section 8 program, and the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program (LIHTC). The first two have a large percentage of housing built before 1980; the latter program, while it has only funded units since the 1990s, is often used to refinance and renovate older housing.
The report found that boosting funding, clarifying definitions and processes, and ensuring adequate training for housing providers can increase equity in outcomes for federally assisted residents with disabilities. Specific recommendations were:
(1) Provide more federal funding for reasonable accommodations in federally assisted housing to allow housing providers to meet legal requirements. Significant one-time outlays and/or an ongoing dedicated annual funding stream for housing providers to pay for accommodations would show the federal commitment to funding and enforcement of the law.
(2) Establish a better standard for “reasonableness” to promote access to accommodations across diverse federally assisted housing programs and providers. The law would be most effective if all residents were treated equally and could access the same accommodations from all housing providers receiving federal financial assistance. A clearer standard on financial and administrative burden would help.
(3) Increase uniformity in reasonable accommodation request processes to ensure equitable treatment and outcomes for residents with disabilities. There is no federally prescribed process for reasonable accommodations requests. The lack of uniformity puts the burden of knowing the many rights and processes on residents with disabilities. For housing providers, the desire to avoid discrimination and legal challenge is high, but clear procedural guidance on how to protect against such challenge is low. In addition to the lack of clarity on what is “reasonable," the process has uncertainties.
(4) Train and involve more than one person per housing provider and property in reasonable accommodation request decisions to create a more transparent and fair process.
(5) Improve training, technical assistance, and learning opportunities for housing providers to strengthen reasonable accommodation request processes. Providers noted a lack of resources available for troubleshooting challenges and workshopping solutions. They noted a need for clearer examples of standards and processes, as well as access to targeted technical assistance on reasonable accommodations and fair housing practices.
(6) Improve relations between housing managers and tenants with disabilities.
(7) Congress and HUD should provide housing providers with sufficient funding to help support service-related needs. They should also explore funding collaborations with other federal agencies that serve residents living in public housing and that receive mutual benefit from residents receiving on-site services.
