Many disabled people in Southeastern North Carolina can't afford housing

July 17--A public hearing on the problems of finding affordable housing for persons with disabilities will be held at 1 p.m. Thursday at the New Hanover County Public Library downtown.

People with disabilities, church groups, service providers, public officials and all those concerned are invited to attend, according to Gloria Garten, executive director of Wilmington's disAbility Resource Center. Her nonprofit agency is sponsoring the event in cooperation with the Cape Fear Affordable Housing Coalition and Legal Aid of North Carolina.

"We want to raise awareness of what's happening," Garton said. She hopes that a number of local elected officials will turn out for the program.

The problem, Garton said, is that most apartments and other housing in the Lower Cape Fear area are well outside the price range of many disabled persons.

"Many of them are just living on SSI," Garton said. SSI, or Supplemental Security Income, is a federal program for the aged, blind or other disabled persons who have little or no other income. "For many of them, that amounts to just $750 a month." According to the website Sperling's Best Places, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in New Hanover County is $690 per month, which would leave just $60 per month for food, medicines and other expenses.

According to Garton, the best estimates are that one area resident in four has some form of physical, intellectual or emotional disability, which shows the extent of the problem.

"We get two to three calls per day on housing," Garton said, "either looking for it or losing it or already homeless."

The costs of disabled people losing homes or apartments multiply, Garton said. Many of them lose access to paid caregivers or other home services if they don't have a residence. Many shelters are not handicapped accessible, and the Wilmington Housing Authority has only a limited number of vouchers to hand out.

Garton says she knows of local hospitals that have kept patients for extra days because they had no place to go, reducing the availability of hospital beds and raising costs for other patients.

"Many people seem to have the attitude that if people are homeless, they brought it on themselves," Garton said. "That's not always the case. The system is broken in many cases, so it's going to be hard to fix." She hopes the testimony Thursday from some disabled people will change some minds.

Many changes will have to come from government. Garton said volunteers will offer voter registration to anyone attending Thursday's hearing.

Reporter Ben Steelman can be reached at 910-343-2208 or Ben.Steelman@StarNewsOnline.com

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