New housing bill in congress needs our help
Under current law, when federal financial assistance is used to create new single family houses or town houses, only 5% are required to meet accessibility standards that allow individuals with physical disabilities to visit or live in these houses. The remaining 95 percent of government-assisted new homes can be built with unnecessary architectural barriers. As a result, residents who acquire disabilities are forced to live in unsafe conditions, unable to use their bathrooms or exit their homes independently.nbsp; They may face high renovation costs or long waiting lists for public funds to finance modifications. They may become socially isolated because barriers in their homes prevent visits from other friends and family members with disabilities. Ultimately, they may be forced from their homes and into institutions because of this lack of basic accessibility in their housing. (Source: concretechange@yahoogroups.com)
HR 1408 addresses these dilemmas in a cost-effective and practical way. While leaving in place the existing requirement for extensive access in 5%, IHDA provides for fewer but important accessible features in the remaining 95%. This would ensure that all housing built with taxpayer monies enables a person with a physical disability to enter a home and use the bathroom on the main level. For homes built on a concrete slab, the cost is less than $100 and for homes with a basement or crawl space the cost is estimated at less than $600.
In a study published last year by the American Planning Association, researchers determined that, using different measures of disability, there was a 25 to 60 percent chance that a house built in 2000 would at sometime during its useful life contain a resident with a severe, long-term mobility impairment.[1] This nation is not building homes to meet the needs of its people. HR 1408 will take considerable steps to correct that. Please support HR 1408.
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This is a big deal for all Americans, not just the disabled. While folks in wheelchairs and walkers want to be able to buy a house like everyone else that they can actually use, the elderly have the same issues. You may be able to use your home just fine now, but what about 20 years from now? Stairs and sunken dens will suddenly be areas of the house that you cannot enter. Lots of money and effort will need to be put in place to either remove these barriers or to change them into ramps. Rather than trying to figure out how we are all going to pay for these problems then, lets fix it now. There is no reason why stairs are necessary on the first floor to get into most houses and entryways must be wide enough to allow a wheelchair through. This added space will make it easier to move into the home and to bring in new furniture and appliances. This opens up neighborhoods to the disabled so that there are fewer empty homes in a neighborhood that could be used by criminals to destroy the area. Everyone wins when we do just a few things to make all homes accessible to the ever increasing number of disabled and elderly people. Things will not get better unless we do something about it. A democracy requires that we all participate which fortunately is easy to do. Calling your congressman or sending an email to one of your senators goes a long way to let them know what you are expecting from them. If we don’t let them know then we can expect things to continue along where the disabled cannot access over 95% of the new homes built everyday. It would be very sad if nothing was done about this when a fix is right in front of us.
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