Request for housing stories

[Guest guest]

Permission to re-post from Serena dowling at Access Alaska..

I received the following request for stories about the

difficulty of finding affordable, accessible housing in an effort to

educate policy

makers. Please review the notice and, if you have such a story or

know

someone that does, please e-mail names, addresses (standard and e-

mail)

and phone numbers along with a short description of stories to:

dfleurant@... by February 7. I will forward it along to the

folks

in DC. Thanks for your help.

THE HOUSING CRISIS FACING PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES:

TELLING THE STORY

Finding affordable, accessible housing is a significant problem for

people with all types of disabilities across the country. Over the

next few

months, the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) Housing

Task Force

will be creating opportunities to educate government officials, policy

makers, opinion leaders, and the general public about this mounting

national

crisis.

For example, the next version of the Priced Out report will be

published

in March, demonstrating a significant explosion in housing costs as

compared to Supplemental Security Income (SSI) monthly income.

We need to " put a face " on this issue by gathering stories of

individuals with all types of disabilities from across the country

who would be

willing to talk to a member of the press (print, broadcast or

electronic). We

need stories of adults with disabilities who:

1) Receive SSI benefits;

2) Have attempted to find affordable rental housing, and/or

affordable and accessible rental housing, and/or or who simply need

affordable housing (i.e. they are living with aging parents, paying

most

of their SSI income for rent, " stuck " in a group or nursing home

where they

don't want to be; homeless or about to be homeless etc.).

If an individual has sought help from a public housing authority

(PHA), a HUD regional office,a or a local affordable housing or

disability organization and has been told he/she must wait years for

housing - such

stories are also critical.

Reasons for inability to secure rental housing could range from:

1) The individual was told that Section 8 vouchers were not

available

2) The individual was told that all the waiting lists were

closed

3) The individual was told the subsidized property was

elderly-only and they were not eligible to live there; and/or

4) The property would not accept a Section 8 housing

voucher and/or

5) The property was not accessible

********************************

This issue of Priced Out will be the third. The first was Priced Out

in 1998, the Housing Crisis for People with Disabilities. The second

was

Priced Out in 2000, the Crisis Continues. This third issue will be

released sometime in March 2003 - right in time for the FY 2004

appropriations process. Priced Out is also an extremely useful tool

for

state and local advocates because each issue contains state-specific

and

locality-specific data on the housing crisis faced by people with

disabilities.

While Priced Out focuses specifically on people who receive SSI and

the

crisis they face as the poorest of the poor, information about the

problems faced by individuals who receive SSDI or VA benefits would

also be

useful.

Dave Fleurant

Executive Director

Disability Law Center of Alaska

907.565.1002

907.565.1000 (fax)

This e-mail message may contain confidential, privileged information

intended solely for the addressee. Please do not read, copy, or

disseminate it unless you are an addressee in either the " to " or " cc "

lines, or have

been given prior authorization. If you have received it in error,

please

call me immediately at 907-565-1002 and ask to speak with Dave

Fleurant.

You may call collect. Also, I will appreciate your forwarding the

message

back to me and deleting it from your system.