Coalition for Housing Opportunities in the Community for Everyone, Inc.

© 2006, Coalition for Housing Opportunities in the Community for Everyone, Inc,  All Rights Reserved

Why We’re Here  

Northern Virginians with disabilities face many barriers to finding and staying in housing.  The primary culprits are low incomes, the lack of affordable, accessible housing, and discrimination.  

The Fair Housing Amendments of 1988 provide protections from housing discrimination for people with disabilities. However, few jurisdictions enforce these laws.  As a result, required accessibility features in rental housing continue to be overlooked. Moreover, individuals with disabilities are often denied the right to make needed modifications to their homes.

Although many adults with disabilities want to work, in a report issued in July 2010 by the Kessler Foundation/NOD Survey of Americans with Disabilities, only 21 percent of people with disabilities were employed.  Moreover, thousands of Northern Virginians with disabilities are on waiting lists for housing subsidies.  In a high cost area such as Northern Virginia, many people with disabilities are completely ‘priced out’ of the housing market and do not know where to turn.

Finally, public and private housing policies and procedures often segregate people with disabilities and violate their right to live in housing complexes available to citizens without disabilities. Without a coordinated community effort, people with disabilities will have no choice but to find shelter in nursing homes, institutions, jails, shelters or the streets.