Housing for Disabled People

Sometime in the next month, I am going to be moving.  That has been the plan since Mike and I ended our relationship several months ago.  We've still been sharing a home up 'til now, partly for financial reasons, and partly because it's taken me a while to find affordable housing.

You see, most people that are on disability, whether that's SSI or SSDI, can't afford the market rent on most apartments.  The last time I lived in an apartment, which was nearly ten years ago, I paid $425 a month in rent.  I also had to pay utilities, of course.  It would be very difficult for me to afford that on my current income, supposing I could even find a decent apartment with such low rent today.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has a number of programs to help people with low incomes afford housing.  One program involves subsidizing rent for people with disabilities that meet specific income guidelines.  They way it usually works is that a private management company has a contract with HUD  that allows the company to rent apartments to people with disabilities and base their rent on their income.  HUD pays the remainder of the rent.  (By the way, if you want to look for apartment complexes in your area that offer subsidized housing for people with disabilities in your area, check out the HUD website here.)

In many ways, it's a great deal for people that otherwise couldn't afford housing.  You get cheap rent and HUD requires the apartment meet certain criteria and pass an inspection by HUD (so it can't be a total dump).  The downsides are that there aren't enough of these apartments for all the people needing affordable housing, there are usually long waiting lists (sometimes two years or more), the apartments are usually small and not the nicest you've ever seen, and you have to deal with all the red tape typically involved with getting benefits from a government agency to get into one.

I applied for an apartment at two different apartment complexes at the beginning of December.  I expected it to take at least six months to get an apartment.  However, I've now been informed that I am at the top of the waiting list and I expect to be moving sometime next month.  I'm both excited and overwhelmed at the prospect.

Last week I had to go complete some additional paperwork for the apartment.  It was a reminder of why I hate having to deal with government agencies in order to get benefits I need.  They never make it easy.  It's almost like they go out of their way to make it as difficult and stressful as possible.  They give you a bunch of forms to fill out and the forms are so confusing that even I, with a college education, have trouble figuring out how to fill them out.  When I ask questions, the person that gave me the forms has trouble figuring them out, too.  They ask for documents at that last minute that I don't have or don't know how to get, and say they need those specific documents even though I have other documents that seem like they would serve the same purpose or even work better. 

They do not tell me in advance that I'm going to need certain things; for instance, they told me four days ago that I could claim the costs of my vitamins as a medical expense, which would reduce my rent, if I had a letter from my physician saying they were medically necessary and receipts to verify the cost.    Well, I saw my doctor two weeks ago and could have asked her to sign such a letter then, but I didn't know then that I would need such a letter.  I have purchased plenty of vitamins since I applied for housing in December but I didn't save the receipts because I didn't know I was going to need them.  Do you save all your vitamin receipts?  Who does that, if they don't have a specific reason to save them?  I suggested that in the future it might be helpful to give people a list of documents they will need when they first turn in an application, which I thought was a very helpful and reasonable suggestion, but the person I made the suggestion to did not seem to appreciate my input on the matter.

The whole experience reminded me of when I was first applying for disability and other benefits, how stressful it was, and how dehumanizing.  That's what prompted me to post my poem, "Confession," the other night.

I don't actually like the apartment I will be moving to very much.  I will write more about that later.  I like where it is located, I like the fact that it is super affordable, I like the fact that it  has a locked security door with buzzer and intercom, I like the fact that there is onsite laundry, etc.  I like plenty of things about it.  Just not the actually apartment.  It's small and ugly.  But you don't get many choices about where to live when you are disabled and have a very limited income.