Skip to main content

Housing Barriers Challenge the Disabled

HUD.GOV HUDUser.gov
eList
HUDUSERNEWS
The results of an important research effort, titled
"Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities:
Barriers at Every Step," is now available through the HUD
USER Clearinghouse. Together with its "Testing Guidance
for Practitioners" companion piece, the "Barriers at
Every Step" volume advances our ability to verify - and
furthers our chances of eradicating - inequity in housing
opportunities for disabled persons.

The study employs a number of newly developed, field-
tested tools for measuring housing discrimination that
are:

o Applicable to various kinds of disabilities and housing
circumstances;

o Useful in detecting differential treatment;

o Viable for use in documenting refusal to make
reasonable accommodations; and

o Applicable to a larger, nationally representative
sample of housing markets (both sale and rental).

The study also systematically documents discrimination
against two groups with disabilities in the Chicago metro
area: deaf persons who used the TTY phone system to call
about advertised rental housing and persons in
wheelchairs who personally visited rentals to inquire
about an available unit. One-fourth of the callers using
the TTY system to follow up on rental unit advertisements
received no service. A significant portion of deaf
persons whose calls were accepted received less
information about the application and how to get
additional information than did their hearing
counterparts. Adverse treatment occurred in one-half of
the calls placed via the TTY system. One-third of
customers in wheelchairs who personally made rental
inquiries were also adversely treated. This treatment
consisted of learning about fewer rental options than
non-disabled customers were informed of, not being
allowed to inspect units, and receiving less information
about the application process.

These findings are even more revealing when contrasted
with a recent study of housing discrimination
attributable to race and ethnicity in the Chicago
metropolitan area. This comparison depicts the
discrimination experiences of different populations. When
viewed side by side, the "measures of systematic
discrimination against persons with disabilities are
generally higher than the net measures of discrimination
on the basis of race and ethnicity."
A copy of this report is available as a free download
from https://www.huduser.gov/portal/publications/hsgspec/dds.html
or in printed form for a nominal fee by calling HUD USER
at 1-800-245-2691.


--------------------------------------
Please contact us at:
HUD USER
P.O. Box 23268
Washington, DC 20026-3268
1-800-245-2691
1-800-927-7589 (TDD)
202-708-9981 (fax)
--------------------------------------
The HUD USER News listserv was created to keep
professionals in the fields of housing and community
development abreast of new research and resources
available from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development's Office of Policy Development and Research
(PD&R). Periodically, publications and announcements will
be sent via the listserv.

Share HUD USER's resources and information with a
colleague. Please consider forwarding this e-mail to an
associate who may be interested in the resources HUD USER
has to offer. Thanks!

To stay abreast of new HUD research and resources,
subscribe to HUD USER News. This listserv will
automatically e-mail you publication announcements and
other notices from HUD's Office of Policy Development and
Research. To subscribe, send a message to:
hudusernews@huduser.gov. In the subject of the message,
type: subscribe. For example:
To: hudusernews@huduser.gov
Subject: subscribe

You will receive a confirmation message with instructions
on how to search the message archives and how to
unsubscribe. You may use your web browser to search the
listserv message archives at
https://www.huduser.gov/portal/elist/archive.html