Housing Vouchers for Non-Elderly Persons with Disabilities

Steve Gold's Information Bulletin # 290 (6/09). On the 10th anniversary of the Olmstead decision, June 22, 2009, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a Proposed Notice regarding funding for 4,000 Mainstream housing vouchers for non-elderly people with disabilities. Vol. 74 Federal Register, No. 118, 6/22/09, pages 29504-29510. The Proposed Notice described two categories of vouchers: Category 1: 3,000 vouchers for non-elderly people with disabilities; and Category 2: 1,000 vouchers for non-elderly people with disabilities to transition from nursing homes and other institutions into the community. There is good news and some troubling/not so good news. First some background information. All of the 4,000 vouchers are "competitive," i.e., your local public housing authority must apply to HUD and compete against other public housing authorities. HUD will review applications and decide which public housing authorities will receive these vouchers and how many. HUD has established threshold requirements and an application form [See pages 29505-07.] The good news: 4,000 non-elderly people with disabilities will receive vouchers to pay for affordable housing. Also, HUD recognizes that some people with disabilities live in nursing homes only because they cannot afford to rent apartments in the community and targets 1,000 of these vouchers to transition people out of these institutions. The troubling/bad news: the Proposed Notice limits vouchers in Category #1 to people on the public housing authority's waiting list, and limits vouchers in Category #2 to people who "must be admitted from PHA's waiting list and assisted through a preference as stated in the PHA's Administrative Plan for transitioning people from institutions." You might want to send HUD comments regarding the following: 1. Re Category #1: What if a public housing authority neither identifies people on its voucher waiting list by disability nor has many people with a disability on the list? Will the public housing authority open up its waiting list? Email and tell HUD either to require public housing authorities to open up the waiting list so people with disabilities can apply for these waivers, or HUD should administratively waive the "waiting list" requirement for these vouchers. 2. Re Category #2: People who are in nursing homes, most likely, are either not currently on a public housing waiting list or, if they were on the waiting list sometime in the past, probably have been dropped from it. We would be amazed if there were more than a handful of public housing authorities that currently gave a "preference as stated in the PHA's Administrative Plan for transitioning people from institutions." Email and tell HUD to waive this requirement - if it really wants these 1,000 vouchers to transition people from institutions to the community. 3. In the Proposed Notice, only public housing authorities can apply for these 4,000 vouchers. Email and tell HUD to change the regulation so that if a public housing authority does not apply for these vouchers, then a non-profit organization or a public entity other than the public housing authority should be permitted to apply. Otherwise, the disability community is at the whim of a local public housing authority. 4. Many state Medicaid officials and departments want to access these vouchers to assist persons with disabilities to transition out of institutions and to prevent people from going into these institutions. These state Medicaid folks could save considerable federal and state funds if they could apply for these vouchers. Email and tell HUD to permit state Medicaid departments, maybe in conjunction with a state housing department, to apply for these vouchers, if a local public housing authority does not apply. Even though the Proposed Notice had o deadline for applying and HUD is not accepting applications until after it reviews the comments in response to this Proposed Notice, it is very important for advocates for people with disabilities to contact their housing authorities NOW to discuss their willingness to apply for these vouchers. We hope that all of your housing authorities will apply for the maximum number of housing vouchers for which they are eligible, so that as many non-elderly persons with disabilities as possible can use them to access affordable housing. You should write to your public housing authorities requesting they apply for these vouchers. If they do not respond or if they give you the runaround, find out why. Comments to HUD must be submitted no later than July 13, 2009. If you wish to send in comments electronically, send to NEDVoucherNOFA@hud.gov Steve Gold, The Disability Odyssey continues Back issues of other Information Bulletins are available online at http://www.stevegoldada.com with a searchable Archive at this site divided into different subjects. To contact Steve Gold directly, write to stevegoldada@cs.com or call 215-627-7100. -- Steve Gold, The Disability Odyssey continues