2012 MAD Winter Article: The Day We Became Shut Out, Priced Out and Segregated No More
By Carmel Hearn
November 30, 2011 was an ordinary late November day in many ways, but a day like no other as the facts were exposed, myths were debunked and hope was born for many people living like prisoners inside their homes. On this day, Georgia homebuilders, disability advocates and government agencies revealed the findings of the landmark housing study, “Shut Out, Priced Out and Segregated (SOPOS): The Need for Fair Housing for People with Disabilities.”
The findings of the report were delivered during a press conference and home tour attended by members of the media along with local and international disability advocates. Stating that housing is a fundamental need, but that there is a shortage of housing for people with disabilities, the 82-page report illustrates why housing is often inaccessible, unaffordable and segregated for people with disabilities. But it also includes recommendations to ensure that people with disabilities have access to appropriate housing, as well as recommends initiatives to create housing for Georgians regardless of age or ability.
Developed by Georgia’s Metro Fair Housing Services with the financial support of A.G. Spanos Companies, the report, which took nearly a year to compile, identifies housing as a fundamental need, but also points to a growing segment of the US population, those with mobility issues, persons with developmental disabilities and the elderly, who may find their home inaccessible, either now or in the future.
“With the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Fair Housing Amendments Act, there should be plenty of housing that is appropriate for people with disabilities,” explained Joseph D. Frazier, president of Metro Fair Housing Services, in a letter of introduction to stakeholders. “Unfortunately, that is not the case.”
The Fair Housing Act requires all “covered multi-family dwellings” designed and constructed for first occupancy to be accessible and usable for people with disabilities. And while the study is a cautionary tale about the consequences of violating the Fair Housing Act, it is also a challenge to the homebuilding industry to start providing the same basic access features into new single-family home construction. It warns that by ignoring a growing segment of the population or being unaware of simple and affordable construction practices, builders often unknowingly condemn people with disabilities and the elderly to a life of segregation, isolation and even institutionalism.
“In the United States, people with disabilities are among the fastest growing segments of the population,” explained Eric Jacobson, executive director of the Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities (GCDD). “Over 59 million Americans have a disability, making them one of the largest minorities. For people with disabilities to live independently in the community, they need decent, safe, affordable and often physically accessible housing as well as access to supports and services.”
While federal law requires multi-family housing to be accessible, there is no regulation that requires single-family (including duplex and triplex) homes to be constructed with any access features such as zero-step access into the home, a bathroom on the main floor or ample door widths for a wheelchair.
“Six out of 10 new houses are projected to have a resident with severe, long-term mobility impairment at some point during the lifetime of the house,” said Eleanor Smith, executive director of Concrete Change. Having used a wheelchair since being diagnosed with polio at age three, Smith founded the Atlanta-based advocacy organization in 1986. She wrote and helped pass an Atlanta ordinance, which was also the nation’s first law requiring a basic level of access in certain private, single-family homes intended for the general public rather than for persons with disabilities.
In 2008, the National Fair Housing Alliance, along with other plaintiffs, filed suit against A.G. Spanos Companies, one of the largest construction services companies in the United States and a major developer of multi-family apartment communities. The suit alleged that Spanos violated the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 by building apartments that were inaccessible to people with disabilities. The lawsuit was resolved with Spanos agreeing to pay more than $12 million to retrofit 13,200 units in 41 developments throughout the country, including here in Georgia.
“During the process of settling the case, our board president suggested to Mr. Spanos that funding be set aside to develop a report that would identify the barriers to fair housing for people with disabilities, highlight best practices and make realistic recommendations that would assist builders, developers, city planners, advocates and others,” said Gail Williams, executive director of Metro Fair Housing Services. “To his credit, Mr. Spanos readily agreed to that proposal and provided $40,000 for the development of the report. Metro Fair Housing was given the responsibility of creating the report, and the resulting document has proven to be advantageous, not only for our organization, but for the State of Georgia in general.”
In developing the report, Metro Fair Housing Services also convened a coalition of experts, the SOPOS Panel, to provide research and recommendations to guarantee that all people with disabilities have access to appropriate housing. These include:
• Accessibility: to accommodate limited mobility or other needs
• Affordability: to address the significant financial burden of a disability such as attendant or medical care, and the large number of people with disabilities living below the federal poverty level
• Integration: to address the often segregated or otherwise isolated nature of existing housing from the larger community mobility
“The integration piece is particularly important,” emphasized Jacobson. “This is the issue of making sure people live where they want to live and services aren’t tied to housing.”
“A 1999 Supreme Court decision indicated that institutionalism was a form of discrimination,” explained William Janes, former Olmstead coordinator for the State of Georgia. “If we don’t have integrated housing, we’re creating institutionalism within the community. The Supreme Court says that is illegal and is discrimination.”
The landmark Olmstead Decision stated that unjustified isolation of individuals with disabilities is properly regarded as discrimination based on disability.
“In some cases, initially the service and support may be constant,” Janes added. “Over time that may change, but it has to be a person-centered plan based on what the individual wants. They should have the choice to decide where they want to live and should feel like that is their home.”
In the SOPOS report, the panel of disability advocates and housing industry experts recommended initiatives to create housing for Georgians regardless of age or ability. In doing so, the State would be further in compliance with federal laws regarding housing and placement of people with disabilities, and reduce the use of State funds for inappropriate institutionalization of people with disabilities. Georgia would also be creating a model for the rest of the country to follow.
“This report has a huge potential for impact,” said Kristen Vincent, consultant for the SOPOS Panel. “We had the incredible opportunity to craft it for Georgia, to look at what the issues and best practices are here in Georgia, and what will work for Georgians. If we can get these recommendations implemented in Georgia, then our State can serve as a model for other states.”
The report also warns that retrofitting homes is not always a viable option and further demonstrates the very high cost of doing nothing at all.
“If I had a nickel for every time I got a phone call from somebody who was in a nursing home because they didn’t have a way to pay rent while they were recovering from a hip replacement or stroke, I would be a very rich woman,” observed Pat Puckett, executive director of Statewide Independent Living Council. “Accessibility and affordability are very much major factors in what winds people up in expensive long-term care 24-7. We’ve got to invest in better ways to build houses and invest in better ways to allow people to stay in their own homes as long as they choose. That’s the right thing to do.”
“I can tell you it is horribly expensive to remodel homes after the fact,” stated Christine Fortenberry, CEO Fortenberry Construction. Fortenberry is also the State director of the Home Builders Association of Georgia and teaches homebuilders licensing courses. “It costs pennies to widen a doorway when I’m building new construction, but it will cost hundreds of dollars to widen the same doorway during remodeling.”
Smith demonstrated what having accessible housing can mean for someone with a disability by giving a tour of her home, and even more remarkably, her neighbor’s home.
“All that’s different about this house is that I was able to bump in the front door without going up a step,” she said as she effortlessly wheeled into the home. “It was dirt cheap to do it because the earth was graded so the sidewalk comes up to the door, just like at the bank. It’s dirt-cheap because they use dirt. The doorways look like normal doorways but they’re not narrow. This is a house for everybody.”
During the construction of Smith’s neighborhood, the East Lake Commons subdivision in southeast Atlanta, it cost a mere $100 to $600 extra to include accessibility considerations. Smith also showed off one of the other basic features that makes her feel comfortable visiting her neighbor’s home, as she gestured to a half-bath just off the main floor great room.
“This is something that makes someone in a wheelchair relax instead of being extremely nervous,” she disclosed. This looks like a door. But it’s more than just a door. It’s a wide enough door to fit through. It causes anyone who can’t fit through a door to say, ‘Thank goodness I might be able to go to the bathroom here.’”
Smith’s tour group consisted of local advocates as well as attendees from the TASH Conference that was meeting in Atlanta at the time. Founded in 1975, TASH is an international leader in disability advocacy, advocating for human rights and inclusion for people with significant disabilities and support needs – those most vulnerable to segregation, abuse, neglect and institutionalization.
“I’m writing a publication for Florida’s Development Disability Council,” said one of the tour participants, Evelyn Rusciolelli of Tallahassee, FL. “It will be a guide on different types of housing and financial resources. I came just to see what they’re doing here.”
Although physical barriers are often the most obvious issues of accessible housing, the SOPOS Panel wants to make sure that other, less tangible obstacles, are addressed and removed as well. That’s where the Georgia Department of Community Health’s Medicaid Division comes in.
“We manage a grant called Money Follows the Person,” explained Catherine Ivy, the State agency’s deputy director of aging and special populations. “This project is designed to transition folks from institutions, specifically from nursing homes, into the community. The biggest single barrier we find to transitioning individuals is accessible, affordable housing. The key is the affordable part. The grant itself will pay for some modifications, but you first need to find housing that’s affordable. Folks want to move into the community from institutions, but they have lost affordable housing and can’t find it again.”
The Panel also recommends that disability advocates reach out to the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) and local government administrators of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) to discuss the housing needs of people with disabilities.
Panel members are hoping that their suggestions, as outlined in the SOPOS report, will provide a blueprint for Georgia to lead the nation in reducing the housing shortage for people with disabilities. It can happen simply
by instituting simple measures such as building the same basic access features in new single home construction as are currently mandated for multi-family buildings. It can happen by making homes accessible to all homebuyers, which could also revive the real estate market.
It could mean that, on an ordinary November day in a nondescript Georgia neighborhood, a handful of people did something extraordinary. They took a stand and led the way for millions of Americans to become shut out, priced out and segregated no more.
For more information and to download the SOPOS report, please visit the GCDD website and click on the “Real Homes” tab or visit http://gcdd.org/real-homes.html
Sidebar: What are the Fair Housing Act’s requirements for housing to be accessible?
The Fair Housing Act requires all “covered multi-family dwellings” designed and constructed for first occupancy after March 13, 1991 to be accessible to and usable by people with disabilities. Covered multi-family dwellings are all dwelling units in buildings containing four or more units with one or more elevators, and all ground floor units in buildings containing four or more units, without an elevator.
The Fair Housing Act insists on seven basic requirements that must be met to comply with the access requirements of the Act. They are:
• An accessible building entrance on an accessible route
• Accessible common and public use areas
• Usable doors (usable by a person in a wheelchair)
• Accessible route into and through the dwelling unit
• Light switches, electrical outlets, thermostats and other environmental controls in accessible locations
• Reinforced walls in bathrooms for later installation of grab bars
• Usable kitchens and bathrooms
www.fairhousingfirst.org/faq/mfhousing.html
