HUD's Failure to Enforce Accessibility in the HOME Investment Partnership program

Steve Gold's Information Bulletin #302 (3/10)

Many of you remember the struggles the disability advocates had with HUD in late 90s/early 2000s with regards to HUD's failure to enforce of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 which required accessibility of Public Housing Authorities' housing. As a result of your efforts, including complaints you filed, HUD finally conducted a number of compliance reviews and signaled the clear duty of PHAs to have at least 5% of public housing units accessible for people with mobility disabilities and another 1% for people with hearing and visual impairments.

Well folks, it's about time HUD conducted similar enforcement with regards to the $22 billion of federal funds that have been allocated throughout the country via the federal HOME Investment Partnership. Nearly 350,000 rental units have used HOME funds for new construction, rehabilitation and/or acquisition.

National data shows that about 45% of these rental units are occupied by families whose incomes are less than 30% of the average median income and another 40% whose incomes are between 30-50% of the AMI. The lowest-income people are primarily in HOME's rental units.

Wouldn't it be great if low-income people with disabilities were renting these units? Wouldn't it be terrific if HUD had conducted accessibility HOME compliance reviews? Hmm, we might even have a lot more accessible units available for low-income people with disabilities.

Here's where you can find HOME information in your state. Go to http://www.hud.gov/offices/cpd/affordablehousing/reports/#npr, click on Dashboard Reports and then your State. You can then see which "participating jurisdiction" you are in. Click on the pdf file. You will then find a chart which provides cumulative information (since 1992) regarding the total number of units completed and the percentage that are rental (HOME also funds Homebuyers and Homeowner).

Once you get that information, you can figure out what number of HOME's rental units in your area must comply with the 5%/1%/1% accessibility mandate. With this information, you can talk with your "participating jurisdiction" public officials who administer the HOME funds. If you have any problem finding out who they are, just telephone your regional HUD officials and ask them. Even if HUD officials do not know whether Section 504 has been complied with in the HOME program, they do know the local and state officials who have received $22 billion.

Now the fun begins. Visit the HOME administrators and ask for the addresses of the accessible units. If they do not know or refuse to provide it, file a complaint with HUD! Yes, ten years later we're back to HUD, except this time it's regarding HUD's failure to ensure HOME recipients comply with Section 504. We had some success with forcing HUD to monitor public housing and now we'll push HUD to monitor HOME funds.

Steve Gold, The Disability Odyssey continues

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To contact Steve Gold directly, write to stevegoldada@cs.com or call 215-627-7100.