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Housing Crisis Continues
Using SSI benefits and federal housing cost data, the key
findings of Priced Out in 2000 document that people with disabilities
lost more "buying power" in the rental housing market during the past two years,
and were still the low-income group with the highest level of unmet need for
housing assistance:
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Regarding people with disabilities they continue to be the
poorest people in the nation. As a national average, SSI benefits in 2000 were
equal to only 18.5 percent of the one-person median household income, falling
below 20 percent of median income for the first time in over a decade. |
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In 2000, people with disabilities receiving SSI benefits
needed to pay- on a national average- 98 percent of their SSI benefits in
order to be able to rent a modest one-bedroom unit at the published U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Fair Market Report |
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In 2000, there was not one single housing market in the
country where a person with a disability receiving SSI benefits could afford
to rent a modest efficiency or one-bedroom unit. |
(Excerpted from an article appearing in a
housing publication "Opening Doors" June issue, by Marie Herb, Emily
Miller, Ann O'Hara : Findings from Priced out in 2000)
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