Housing’s Double Whammy for People with Disabilities

As I’m drafting this, I am in the middle of a move, from one apartment to another. I love my new apartment, but…

If I had mobility limitations, it would be either difficult or impossible (depending on the limitation) to live where I am moving to.

To explain some more, I live on the second floor of my new building, and there is no elevator. That is not a problem for me, a person who is currently able-bodied. But that would be a problem if I struggled to move around, and impossible if I needed a wheelchair.

Laundry, in particular, would be just about impossible, for there is no laundry in my building, either. 

And here’s the thing: my situation is hardly unique among New Yorkers. I was recently talking with a friend of mine who lives in a fourth floor walkup, and also has no laundry in her building. The building I'm leaving has a third floor apartment with no laundry or elevator.

I can go on and on, but my point is that the inaccessibility of many apartments limits housing options for many New Yorkers with disabilities.

But where the real double whammy kicks in is this: walkup apartments (in other words, apartments without elevators) are often more affordable than apartments with accessibility features. Which is great...unless you have a disability that keeps you from being able to access said walkup apartment. Which means that said affordability is only within access for those who are able-bodied, like the current version of me.

Housing is already hard enough to find if you aren't wealthy. Adding mobility limitations to the mix would make it much harder...and yet it's not talked about.

As such, when we talk about increasing our supply of affordable housing for New Yorkers, yes, we should strive to do this for all New Yorkers. But we should also aim to do this while keeping those with disabilities—those who at times have a real shortage of affordable options—particularly in mind.