The House Next Door: A Comparison of Residences by Disability Status

Using New Measures in the American Housing Survey

Denise Whalen and Gina Livermore

Presented at the American Housing Survey (AHS) User Conference

Washington, DC

March 8, 2011

● Working-age people with disabilities face limitations in many aspects of life– 47% who experience poverty for more than one

year are people with disabilities (She and Livermore 2007)

● Housing affordability is an issue– 36% of non-elderly households with worst-case

needs have members with disabilities (HUD 2011)– 41% of households with members with disabilities

have trouble affording housing costs (NCD 2010)

Background

● Poor housing characteristics are common among elderly households with disabled members– Poor economic conditions (Freedman et al. 2008;

Beard et al. 2009)– Neighborhood mobility barriers (Keysor et al.

2010; Freedman et al. 2008)– Crime (Beard et al. 2009; Clark et al. 2009)– Unmet needs for dwelling modifications

(Newman 2003)

Background (cont’d.)

● For the working-age population (18–64 years), how does disability affect:– Housing characteristics?

– Neighborhood characteristics?

● Do characteristics vary by type of disability?

● Do characteristics vary by receipt of housing assistance?

Research Questions

● Six limitation questions:– Deafness or serious difficulty hearing– Blindness or serious difficulty seeing– Serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or

making decisions– Serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs– Serious difficulty dressing or bathing– Difficulty doing errands alone

Defining Disability in the AHS

● Receipt of disability income:– Any disability payments such as Social Security

Disability Insurance (SSDI), workers’ compensation, veterans’ disability payments, or other disability payments

– Any Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments

Defining Disability in the AHS (cont’d.)

Analytic Sample

● Sample exclusions:– Younger than 18 or older than 64– Missing information on any of the six limitation

questions (479)– Missing information on receipt of disability

income (4,185)– Missing information on limitation and disability-

payment questions (26)

● Analytic sample: 65,040 individuals

Disability Rates in the AHS, People Age 18–64

Limitation Prevalence

Hearing disability 1.2

Visual disability 0.8

Cognitive disability 1.9

Ambulatory disability 3.3

Self-care disability 0.7

Independent-living disability 1.7

Any of the six limitations 6.0

Receipt of disability payments 4.7

Any of the six limitations or receipt of disability payments

8.7

Shares of People with Disabilities, by Disability Type

● Rating of unit● Size: square footage, persons/room, square feet/person

● Manufactured or mobile home● Community services provided● Amenities: dishwasher, washing machine, dryer, central air

conditioning, garbage disposal, stove or oven, fire extinguisher, carbon-monoxide detector, garage

● Deficiencies: holes in the floor, peeling paint, evidence of rodents, leaks inside or outside, toilet breakdowns, incomplete plumbing, unsafe drinking water, open cracks in the foundation, missing electrical outlets

Housing Characteristics Studied

Housing Characteristics, by Disability Status

● Rating of neighborhood

● Neighborhood wealth: median income, average fair market rent

● Benefits: access to public transportation, proximity to stores, satisfactory police protection

● Problems: crime, odors, noise, vandalism, presence of trash, proximity to roads in need of repair, proximity to heavy transportation

Neighborhood Characteristics Studied

Neighborhood Characteristics, by Disability Status

● Estimated regression models– Outcomes: housing, neighborhood

characteristics

– Controls: age, education, marital status, gender, race, ethnicity, citizenship, household income, region, urbanicity, number in the household

– Explanatory variable of interest: disability status

Multivariate Methods

Results

● Disability remains statistically significant after controlling for other characteristics– 9.4 percentage-point increase in probability of

housing deficiency

– 7.9 percentage-point increase in probability of neighborhood problems

● Estimated effect of disability is smaller than unadjusted differences

● Having multiple limitations leads to even larger negative effects

● Receiving disability payments is associated with a reduction in the negative effects of disability

● Effect of disability on presence of housing deficiencies:– +11.2 percentage points (one limitation)

– +19.6 percentage points (multiple limitations)

– +4.3 percentage points (disability income)

Results: Type of Disability

● We did not control for savings or expenditures

● For people with disabilities, residence choice may be motivated by different factors

● We cannot definitively state direction of causality

Limitations

Use of Housing Assistance, by Disability Status

● Disability is a significant determinant of housing-assistance receipt– Disability is associated with an 8 percentage-point

increase in the probability of receiving housing assistance

● Receipt of housing assistance slightly reduces the (negative) effect of disability on housing and neighborhood characteristics

Multivariate Results: Disability and Housing Assistance

● Certain types of housing assistance were associated with negative characteristics– Public housing, rent control

● The benefit of housing assistance varies by disability status– Larger positive impact of low-cost mortgages for

people with disabilities relative to people without disabilities

– For people with disabilities, housing vouchers were associated with significant positive effects

Effect of Housing Assistance on Housing and Neighborhood Characteristics

● Disability is significantly associated with many negative housing and neighborhood characteristics– Less disposable income due to disability-related

expenditures

– Difficulty identifying and fixing deficiencies

– May only consider options close to family

● Housing assistance reduces the negative effects of disability on housing characteristics– Vouchers are the most beneficial type of housing

assistance for people with disabilities

Implications of Findings

Contact Information

Denise WhalenCenter for Studying Disability PolicyMathematica Policy Research600 Maryland Ave., SW, Suite 550Washington, DC 20024(202) 554-7517

dwhalen@mathematica-mpr.com

www.DisabilityPolicyResearch.org