By Norm Smith

People with disabilities who receive SSI are expected to pay more than their monthly check for rental housing. This is one finding of a new study released recently by the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities Housing Task Force and the Technical Assistance Collaborative. “Priced Out in 2010” demonstrated that as a national average, people with disabilities subsisting on SSI needed to pay 112 percent of their income to rent a modest one-bedroom unit priced at the fair market rent. Rents for smaller studio/efficiency apartments, were 99 percent of SSI. The study compared the monthly SSI payments received by more than 4.4 million Americans with disabilities to the fair market rental rates for efficiencies and modest one bedroom apartments in every housing market in the country. The fair market rental rate is determined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Another key finding was that people on SSI are the nation’s poorest on a national average with income equaling only 18.7% of the national median income or $8,436 per year. That percentage has dropped significantly in the 12 years from 24.4% since 1998 when “Priced Out ‘98” was published. Yet in the same period of time, the cost of renting has risen by 50% according to the report. The report also shows that people with disabilities on SSI income are 20% below the national poverty level set by the federal government. “This study makes it crystal clear why vulnerable people with disabilities become homeless or are unable to move out of high-cost institutional settings,” said Ann O’Hara of the Technical Assistance Collaborative, who co-authored the study.

“As this study shows, a monthly income of only $703 is less than the rent for most apartments, particularly in higher cost housing markets.” The report also uses the concept of the “housing wage” for a one-bedroom apartment that was developed by the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC). Each year NLIHC calculates in terms of an hourly 40-hour week wage how much some must earn to afford to rent a one-bedroom unit. For 2010 the national “housing wage” average was $15.10 per hour. Using the same formula, “Priced Out 2010” determines that the people with disabilities strictly on SSI receive on a national average a “housing wage” of $4.06 In addition to national data, Priced Out in 2010 also provides information on the housing crisis in all 50.

In Massachusetts a person who received SSI in 2010, would have needed to pay 127 percent of their income to rent a one-bedroom unit, and 115 percent for a studio/efficiency apartment. In terms of a “housing wage,” as a further example, people in Massachusetts need to earn $19.55 per hour to afford to rent affordably, but people on SSI in Massachusetts receive $4.55 by this standard. According to the study, over 4.4 million non-elderly adults relied on SSI payments in 2010.

The study indicates that as many as 1.2 million non-elderly people with disabilities reside in homeless shelters, public institutions, nursing homes, unsafe and overcrowded board and care homes, or segregated group quarters. An estimated 700,000 adults with disabilities are living at home with aging parents who are 65 or older. People with disabilities often end up living in restrictive settings, such as nursing homes r board and care facilities, in order to avoid becoming homeless according to O’Hara. "We have a long history in this country of relying on high-cost institutions and other segregated facilities to provide housing and support services for people with disabilities," O'Hara stated.

Numerous studies have shown that it costs less for people to live in the community, but a federal housing subsidy, such as a HUD Housing Choice Voucher, is essential because rents are so expensive." “While the need is increasing, the number of new supportive housing units available to people with disabilities has been declining. That means that thousands of people remain stuck in expensive government-funded institutions,” noted Andrew Sperling from the National Alliance on Mental Illness, a Co-Chair of the CCD Housing Task Force.

The report, which was funded by the Melville Charitable Trust, notes that recent federal legislation to reform HUD's Section 811 Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities program could help to create more housing linked with support services in the community. TAC and CCD estimate that more than 50,000 new supportive housing units could be created over a five-year period if Congress provides full funding in Fiscal Year 2012. "We understand the current budget environment in Washington, but the Section 811 program actually saves the government money by helping to move people with disabilities out of expensive institutions" concluded Sperling. "If people don’t have decent housing they can afford, it costs us all more in the long run."