The economy hasn't just wiped out millions of average American homeowners, but it has also made it almost impossible for the disabled to pay their rent. Wisconsin State Journal:
Madison's disabled community can pretty much forget about renting an apartment without a subsidy of some kind. A new report, "Priced Out in 2008," found that it takes about 80 percent of the monthly SSI payment of $720.78 to rent a market studio apartment in the Madison area and an unbelievable 99.3 percent of monthly SSI income to rent a one-bedroom apartment. (SSI, Supplemental Security Income, is a federal program that is the sole source of income for many of the four million seriously and permanently disabled people who receive it.)
Things are even worse in some places. Nationally it takes an average 112 percent of SSI income to rent a one-bedroom apartment. And in three cities, in Hawaii, Maryland and Massachusetts, SSI recipients would need to spend two times their monthly income to rent a one-bedroom apartment. Not only impossible, but absurd, as the report comments.
The two national advocacy groups for the disabled who conducted the housing study report that the situation worsened under the Bush administration.
Many disabled people do best in a downtown setting, where they can take their motorized wheelchairs on sidewalks, and can have easy access to public transportation. We all know how expensive it is to live in those areas. If they move to areas with more affordable housing (and its implication of fewer sidewalks), they are much farther away from public transportation routes and in essence become trapped in their homes.
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