|
For People with Disabilities, an Indiana Home Is...
- In a safe, stable
community
- Adaptive and built with special needs in mind
- Affordable
An estimated 890,000 people in Indiana have a
physical or mental disability. Put another way, that's more than
the entire population of the city of Indianapolis. It's four
times the population of Fort Wayne and seven times the size of
Evansville. In fact, it's 16 percent of everyone living in the
state over the age of five.
Any way you look at it, it's a
staggering number.
What makes a home for someone living with a
disability? For some, it's eliminating all the physical
obstacles they face in order to get in and out of their home,
cook a meal, take a shower or get into bed. For others, it's
affordable housing with supportive services, including
counseling, job training and other assistance programs.
And Yet...
- Households that include a family member with a
disability are more likely to rent than those without a
disability. They're also more likely to be unable to afford
their home.
- Nearly half of every Hoosier over 65 has a
disability.
- 36 percent of Indiana households with a
disability rent, compared to 29 percent of overall
households.
- 44 percent of renters with a disability live
in unaffordable homes compared to only 33 percent of overall
renters.
- Overall homeownership in Indiana is 71 percent;
for the disabled, it's only 64 percent.
- 44 percent of
owner-occupied households with a disability live in
unaffordable homes compared to only 23 percent of overall
households.
People living with a disability struggle to find
normalcy in a world loaded with barriers. Their homes
shouldn't be one of those places. Just having a home serves
as a kind of support. And advances in medicine and
technology make it easier for people living with a
disability to both live successfully within the community
and contribute to it.
Yet additional expenses created by
their disability, coupled with the adaptive living spaces
they need, make finding affordable homes especially hard.
Given that many people develop disabilities as they age, and
the state's only growing age-defined population is its
senior citizens, the shortage of affordable housing for the
disabled presents an especially troubling dilemma.
Click here to find
housing resources for people with disabilities. |
