Our Vision Statement: Disability Rights California will create individual and family supports, chosen and directed by the person with a disability

Steve Gold, Information Bulletin #288

June 2009

HUD and 2008 State of Fair Housing for People with Disabilities.

Information Bulletin # 288

HUD issued its FY 2008 Annual Report Fair Housing. Here are some findings that might interest disability advocates.

For the following FY 2008 HUD programs, HUD tracks participants' gender, nationality, race, and sometimes family status.

However, HUD publishes no information, collects no data, and apparently has no knowledge about whether the people in these programs have disabilities or not. Doesn't HUD have a legal duty to ensure nondiscrimination in their programs under the Rehabilitation Act? That's easy to do, but only if HUD would actually collect such information.

I. HUD neither publishes, collects nor requires disability data for these programs:

  1. HUD's Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insures 1,087,443
    loans/mortgages in single-family housing (as well as multifamily
    housing and nursing homes), providing $180 billion for single-family
    housing alone.
  2. HUD's Housing Counseling Assistance Program pays for counseling
    services for people seeking, renting, owning, financing and maintaining
    a home.
  3. HUD's HOME Investment Partnership provides funds to state and local
    governments for "affordable" housing for 92,203 people. These funds
    are used to construct or rehabilitate rental housing, rehabilitate
    owner-occupied units, assist first-time buyers, and provide
    tenant-based rental assistance.
  4. HUD's Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) to states and local
    governments benefit 147,197 households with low and moderate incomes.
    These funds are used for home-ownership assistance, rehabilitation of
    both owner-occupied and rental housing.

Why does HUD not require the collection and reporting of disability for these programs?

Maybe HUD does not consider that information important enough to collect. Or perhaps, it is because with such data HUD would have to require recipients of federal financial assistance to comply with the Rehabilitation Act by providing an adequate number of units are fully accessible and ensuring that people with disabilities are residing in units that meet their accessibility needs.

Advocates - do you know whether, for example, your local HOME and CDBG recipients of federal financial assistance are complying with the Rehabilitation Act in your areas?

HUD does have information and data and therefore apparently knows whether there are people with disabilities in the following programs.

II. HUD collects and requires disability data for these programs:

  1. HUD's Housing Choice Voucher programs provide rental assistance for
    housing units in the private market. 38.2% heads of household with
    these vouchers have a disability.

Does HUD determine whether these 38.2% are residing in accessible units that meet their needs? Has HUD informed them of their right to have the value of their voucher increased in order to live in an accessible unit?
Has HUD asked the local housing authorities to determine if these heads of household with disabilities are in accessible units?

  1. HUD's Public Housing program includes the units owned, operated or
    under contract with local public housing authorities. 34.0% of heads of
    household in these units have a disability.

Does HUD ensure that public housing units have been constructed or rehabilitated to meet the minimum requirement of 5% or to meet the actual needs of 34.0% of heads of households who have a disability? Under the federal regulations, "HUD may prescribe a higher percentage" than the minimum 4% if "based upon a demonstration to the reasonable satisfaction of HUD of a need for a higher percentage" than the minimum 5%. When will HUD, based on its own 2008 Annual Fair Housing Report, prescribe a higher percentage?

  1. Through the "Project-Based Section 8, "HUD subsidies the rent for
    specific units. 23.4% of these subsidized project-based units have a
    head of household with a disability.

Does HUD determine whether 23.4% of project-based units meet the accessibility needs of heads of household who have a disability? Does HUD ensure that project-based units have been constructed or rehabilitated to meet the minimum requirement of 5% or to meet the actual needs of 23.4% of heads of household who have a disability?

Wow! HUD knows the number of people with disabilities. Will HUD require that appropriate accessible units be made available to them? The new administration has a terrific opportunity to ensure the civil rights of people with disabilities in HUD programs are in fact enforced. Stay tuned to see what, if anything, HUD does with the data it has, and whether it will seek to obtain data it does not have.

Disability advocates, if HUD will not enforce the Rehabilitation Act, will you?

Steve Gold, The Disability Odyssey continues

Back issues of other Information Bulletins are available online at http://www.stevegoldada.com with a searchable Archive at this site divided into different subjects. To contact Steve Gold directly, write to stevegoldada@cs.com or call 215-627-7100.