Disability Community Celebrates Accessible Affordable Housing Victory

BOSTON — Disability advocates are celebrating a change made by the Massachusetts’ Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities that will nearly double the production of affordable accessible housing units throughout the state.

Low-income housing tax credits projects (the program that creates the most affordable housing in the U.S.) will now have 10% accessible units if the project has more than 10 units and an elevator. This new requirement will apply to the majority of projects.

The amendment also applies to other state-funded affordable housing developments, such as the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which has hundreds of millions of dollars in it. This is a significant increase over the 5% accessible units for projects 20 units or more required by the state architectural access regulations.

Manny Guerra testified in February in support of the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities amendment, saying, “I’m a quadriplegic, a single father, and a business owner. In 2017, a motor vehicle accident left me paralyzed. After three and a half months in the hospital and two years in nursing home rehab, I was ready to return to the community — but I could not find accessible, affordable housing in Worcester, even with a Section 8 voucher and MassAbility offering free modifications to the apartment. I was turned away again and again.

“I eventually found a tiny apartment with a narrow ramp and a door I could barely fit through. For more than five years, I lived almost entirely in my bed because there wasn’t enough space to turn my wheelchair. I couldn’t have visitors. I couldn’t visit my son or grandsons even though they lived only six miles away. I was isolated, depressed,” he went on. “Everything changed when I finally received a fully accessible, affordable condo unit. That housing didn’t just give me a place to live — it gave me the ability to live. I gained independence. The Executive Office of Housing and Livable Community’s amendment will allow people to gain independence like me.”

The difficulty Guerra experienced in finding affordable accessible housing is all too common. There are an estimated 335,000 households in Massachusetts that include an adult with an ambulatory disability, and only about 10,000 affordable accessible units throughout the state.

The increase in accessible and affordable units is a win for many people in the disability community, including those with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDDs) who are living with aging caregivers and are at risk of institutionalization or homelessness.

Austin Carr, citizen member of the Massachusetts Developmental Disabilities Council, noted that, “as an adult with IDD and cerebral palsy, affordability and accessibility are basic necessities. I want to live in a home of my own and with the services and supports to live as independently as possible in the community. My parents are aging, and our family is having conversations and thinking about what my future housing will look like. Each year, the cost of housing is more and more out of reach, and now the financial burden is so high, I wouldn’t be able to support myself and afford a place to live in the community. Everyone deserves a place to call home and access to housing.”