As a wheelchair user, I have always had to pay a premium to live in an apartment independently. In my nine years living in New York City, I have spent more than $18,500 on automatic door openers, conveniences just to make the places I have lived accessible.
I shouldn’t have had to do this; In almost all cases, legally it was the owner’s responsibility, experts have told me. But in the early years he didn’t know it, and more recently the owners refused to pay. I was worried I’d lose the apartment if I made a fuss. I could afford it because I’ve had a steady income from my work as a journalist and private investigator, but that meant my savings during my 20s went largely toward making my homes affordable.
For thousands of New Yorkers with disabilities, this type of spending is simply not feasible. In some cases, landlords refuse to make accommodations or ask tenants to foot the bill, leaving even those with ample resources without an affordable place to live. Often, lawyers and disability rights advocates say, landlords skirt the law to turn away tenants.
There are several factors that determine whether I and many other disabled people can enter an apartment: There cannot be steps at the entrance of the building. The unit must be on the ground floor or the building needs an elevator. Doors must be at least 27 inches wide so my wheelchair can fit through them. The bathroom should be big enough to fit my wheelchair. Most importantly, since I do not have full use of my arms, I cannot open doors without remote-operated door openers, which are installed on the doors to my unit and the main entrance to the building.
In almost every apartment I’ve lived in, this has presented an expensive fight with the landlords that I was never fully prepared for.
It’s hard to find accessible apartments that are also affordable. As of 2021, only 32 percent of units in New York City could be entered without stairs, according to one study. city analysisand most of them are in newly built luxury buildings where rents are much higher than in older structures.
Several laws give people with disabilities the right to equal housing, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, the federal Fair Housing Act, the New York State Human Rights Law, and the City of New York Human Rights Law. NY. New York City has some of the strongest legal protections in the country, said Elizabeth Grossman, executive director of the Fair Housing Justice Center, an organization that provides legal support to New Yorkers fighting housing discrimination.
Together, these laws require New York City property owners to cover the cost of any “reasonable modifications” (such as automatic door openers) unless they create undue financial hardship or are architecturally infeasible. But some landlords argue the accommodations are unreasonable and refuse to pay for them.
Cori Rosen, an attorney at Rosenberg & Estis who primarily represents property owners and developers in accessibility compliance litigation, said building owners and developers should be proactive in their legal obligations rather than making modifications only after filing a complaint.
«I think a lot of people think that building code compliance is compliance with fair housing laws,» Ms. Rosen said. «Many are surprised by the additional requirements of fair housing laws.»
For tenants who use housing vouchers, which subsidize the cost of rent, the problems are compounded.
“People who have housing vouchers are more likely to be people with disabilities, people of color, and single-woman-headed households,” Ms. Grossman said. «And there is significant discrimination against people who use housing vouchers.»
Natàlia Méndez, 39, a Bronx native and founder of Women on Wheels, a nonprofit that supports women with spinal cord injuries, struggled for years to find an affordable apartment that met her needs. After a spinal cord injury in 2006, he began using a wheelchair and had to move to a nursing home in the Bronx for two years because at the time he had no income to pay rent and his parents lived in buildings without elevator. .
Ms. Mendez eventually found a wheelchair-accessible one-bedroom apartment in a building owned by the nursing home at a below-market rate of about $600 a month, but when the building was sold a few years later, the new owners almost tripled the rent.
“I saw almost all my neighbors get kicked out of that building,” Ms. Mendez said. “And they were mostly people in wheelchairs, with disabilities. So it was really unfortunate.”
He got lucky when an acquaintance told him about the Nursing Home Diversion and Transition Waiver program, which provides housing vouchers to people with disabilities who are leaving nursing homes, allowing them to stay in the apartment for even more money. low. cost. But when she wanted to move to a larger space, he said, she had a hard time finding another affordable apartment that accepted vouchers, so she stayed.
Winning and then losing the housing lottery
For many disabled New Yorkers, the city’s affordable housing lottery appears to be the answer. Most of the buildings available through the lottery are new construction, so they are at least accessible by ADA standards, and although «affordable» is often an overstatement, the rent is below market rate .
And yet it was far from a panacea. Under city guidelines, only 5 percent of units are reserved for tenants with mobility disabilities and 2 percent for people with hearing or vision disabilities, and zoning laws do not allow any crossings.
Ms Mendez said her application had progressed to the next stage for three different apartments, but each time something was found wrong with her application or the housing providers did not give her enough time to provide additional documentation.
«I just gave up. I’ve had several interviews and they always find something to deny you,» he said. «They don’t understand the seriousness of what they’re doing.»
Sabrina Bennett, 38, had been applying to participate in the housing lottery for more than a decade before becoming disabled by a spinal cord condition in 2012. She now uses a wheelchair or walker to get around and lives with her husband in supportive homes. She is housing through the city’s shelter system until she can find an affordable apartment she can afford. She hopes to find something through the housing lottery, but she’s already been in the shelter system for five years.
Through the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, the city has taken steps in recent years to expand support for people with disabilities who need affordable housing, including providing a disability services facilitator and housing ambassadors who help connect people with disabilities to resources. The department also trained architects, developers and contractors to ensure accessibility requirements were met.
«In addition to the housing shortage in New York City, those of us with disabilities face countless challenges finding housing that is accessible and affordable,» said William Fowler, press secretary for the department. He added, “We are committed to eliminating barriers to accessibility and discrimination that people with disabilities face in the affordable housing process.”
Building modifications can be expensive to execute, said Michael Tobman, spokesman for the Rent Stabilization Association, a lobbying group that represents owners of rent-stabilized buildings. He added that the costs were unfair to both landlords and prospective tenants and that, when it came to rent-stabilized apartments, the blame lay with state policies that limited rent increases, preventing apartment owners from buildings recover the costs of major capital improvements.
In February, Mayor Eric Adams legislation signed by the City Council improve the accessibility of New York City housing, including requiring new housing developments receiving financial assistance from the city to incorporate universal design in every unit, improve reporting on how many affordable units are reserved for disabled New Yorkers and increase the accessibility of the city’s shelters. .
I entered the housing lottery process optimistic. But when my lottery number was called last November for a studio in Brooklyn, my hopes were shattered. The building told me that the cost of installing automatic openers at the building entrance and at my apartment door would cost almost $24,000, and that I would be responsible for all but $10,000. I resisted and kept searching. Six months later, the building’s owner finally agreed to cover the cost of the door openers, but by then he had already found another apartment.
This problem is common throughout New York City. Residential developers believe they meet accessibility requirements as long as their buildings are ADA compliant. But that’s only part of their obligation to disabled tenants.
«Even newly constructed or recently renovated buildings may not have met all of the design and construction requirements required by the Fair Housing Act and other laws,» said Maureen Belluscio, senior disability justice attorney at New York Lawyers for the Public. Interest program. «And even if they do, they may also be required to provide reasonable accommodations based on an individual person’s rights.»
