The population of New Yorkers with disabilities is diverse and their challenges are acute. According to the 2023 NYC Housing and Vacancy Survey, more than 1 in 5 New York City households (22%) had at least one member with a disability. Discussions of the housing needs of “people with disabilities” risks lumping together people with a very wide range of housing needs, challenges and preferences. Better understanding this large and diverse group of New Yorkers and being able to respond more specifically to their unique housing stability challenges, is a continued priority for the City.
Across the board, however, New Yorkers with many types of disabilities encounter compounded challenges in securing housing that is both affordable and accessible to their specific needs. More than half (54.7%) of New Yorkers with one or more disabilities are rent burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their household income on rent. These challenges include encountering a limited inventory of housing that is both affordable and accessible. Some New Yorkers experience discrimination based on disability status during their housing search while others encounter landlords who are unwilling or slow to provide legally mandated reasonable accommodations, such as installing grab bars or allowing service animals.
For New Yorkers facing language barriers, requesting reasonable accommodations can be extremely difficult. For example, nearly 41% of first-generation Hispanic immigrants across New York City have limited English Proficiency, making obtaining accessible modifications to their units a major challenge. Additionally, as the number of older adults in the city increases, more residents experience age-related disabilities, increasing the need for accessible housing. The lack of inaccessible homes is a major fair housing and safety challenge leaving many people with disabilities and older adults at significant risk.
The City is committed to removing barriers to HPD-financed accessible affordable housing
HPD-financed newly-constructed affordable housing is built to rigorous accessibility standards and is adaptable such that accommodations are relatively easy to make over time across all units. In each new building, HPD ensures that 7% of total units are built to meet the Uniform Federal Accessibility Standards (UFAS), design requirements aiming to meet the highest and broadest accessibility standards. People with disabilities get first priority to move into those units — 5% are set aside for applicants with a mobility disability and 2% for vision and hearing disabilities as required by federal law.
In WWL2020 the City committed to evaluate potential changes to the set asides in HPD-assisted housing for people with disabilities based on new data. Given what we know about people with disabilities and the accessibility of our housing stock from the NYC Housing and Vacancy Survey, we would anticipate that many New Yorkers with disabilities would apply for homes in our affordable housing lotteries. Yet based on recently active accounts, in only 5.1% of Housing Connect profiles applicants have identified that a household member has a mobility difficulty, and 2.9% self-identified as having vision or hearing difficulty. These percentages nearly match the UFAS requirements and are much lower than the general population. These low rates seem to persist despite accessibility improvements to Housing Connect in recent years and dedicated Housing Ambassadors to support people with disabilities in applying for affordable housing. While The City has maintained an affordable housing lottery preference for people with disabilities for new affordable housing, and those units remain set-aside for individuals with disabilities when they turn over to new residents upon re-rental. Take-up of those units, however, has been lower than expected. In order to better understand why New Yorkers with disabilities are not applying to the affordable housing lottery at higher rates, the City will build on the analytic work from the last plan to evaluate and identify how the City’s affordable housing and lottery process can better meet the needs of people with disabilities.
The City is committed to helping New Yorkers with disabilities access the retrofits they need to stay in their homes
Even with changes to the set-aside units for people with disabilities, HPD’s new construction affordable housing programs alone could not meet the needs of all New Yorkers with disabilities given the number of individuals with disabilities relative to the number of units produced. Currently, a significant portion of New York City’s housing (two million units) is older stock, making it more likely to lack modern accessibility features. and are more likely to be walk-up buildings with no or limited elevator access to individuals who use wheelchairs, walkers, or have mobility impairments. Nearly half (45.8%) of New Yorkers who have an ambulatory disability, or serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs, live in buildings without elevator access, making it harder for them to move around safely and independently.
Retrofitting accessibility features into existing buildings without elevators, however, presents significant challenges and often structural, financial, and regulatory constraints. Many older buildings were constructed before accessibility standards were mandated, meaning they often lack the space or infrastructure to accommodate elevators without extensive renovations. Installing an elevator may require major structural changes, such as reinforcing floors or rerouting utilities, which can be prohibitively expensive and technically complex. As a result, elevator installation ranges from $350,000 to $650,000, averaging $500,000. In historic buildings, modifications must also preserve architectural integrity, limiting the types of alterations allowed under preservation laws. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires structural barrier removal only when it is “readily achievable,” meaning feasible without excessive difficulty or expense. As a result, building owners are not typically required to make the reasonable accommodations that would be necessary to make a walk-up building, for example, accessible.
To make more existing private market homes accessible, the City needs to be innovative in how homes can be accommodated for people with disabilities. People should have a choice to stay in their existing homes even if they develop mobility challenges while living in an inaccessible home. To do this, the City will commit to identifying ways to improve the process of obtaining modifications and reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities while increasing the supply of accessible homes.
