NAD Writes Letter to Housing and Urban Development

Submitted by admin [1] on Thu, 04/25/2013 - 09:39

 

Secretary Shaun Donovan
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
451 7th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20410

Dear Secretary Donovan:

The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) is contacting you in your capacity as the head of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development to raise our heightened concerns about the egregious state of housing for deaf and hard of hearing individuals in the United States. We come to you to ask that you take note of the unique housing needs of deaf and hard of hearing individuals who require public or subsidized housing, and recognize both their legal rights and the practical reality that they face.

In a nutshell, your agency, HUD, is forcing deaf and hard of hearing individuals to only live according to an ideological vision of forced integration. The tragic irony is that such an ideology has punished deaf and hard of hearing individuals seeking a higher quality of life and a safer place to live and has actually resulted in the forced isolation of individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing.

Deaf and hard of hearing individuals across the country live in apartments that are not accessible to them because of misguided HUD principles. For example, nothing in the Fair Housing Amendments Act mandates that apartments must provide visual alert devices for smoke or carbon monoxide alarms or for doorbells. HUD has never provided clear mandates for qualified sign language interpreters for deaf and hard of hearing residents living in public or subsidized housing to be able to participate in all aspects of daily community life.

In essence, most deaf and hard of hearing people who reside in public or subsidized housing live in fire-traps because the smoke alarms do not alert them visually or in other non-audible ways. Even if they do have a stand-alone smoke alarm that visually alert them, this alarm is typically not connected to the other smoke alarms in a housing complex. As a result, a deaf resident would only know of a fire in a complex if the fire was so close to their own unit, at which point, it is probably too late for the deaf resident to leave the complex.

Moreover, due to the unique communication needs of deaf and hard of hearing people, many of them exist in isolation in inaccessible housing where there is no one else to communicate with in sign language. These residents therefore experience extreme loneliness and depression, and their quality of life is deplorable.

Yet, HUD has the atrocious gall to intervene in a housing project that was designed to be a place of complete accessibility for everyone including deaf and hard of hearing people. Instead of encouraging a paragon of accessibility, HUD is forcing deaf and hard of hearing residents to live in isolation and in fire-traps where they are not only without practical fire alarms that alert them, but without access to even the most basic communications access to the community in which they live.

Such an approach violates the principle of self-determination desired by all people with disabilities. Deaf and hard of hearing people deserve the same right as everyone else to determine where they want to reside, including in facilities that are designed from the ground up to be completely accessible to them and to provide an environment that fosters community integration and involvement through sign language. The NAD asks HUD to immediately recognize the right of deaf and hard of hearing individuals to choose where they want to live in the full continuum of public or subsidized housing that includes the option of fully accessible housing. 

Under the law, no qualified individual with a disability may be denied the benefits of, or be given housing that is not equal to that provided to individuals without disabilities.  Despite this clear mandate and the millions of individuals with disabilities who are waiting for accessible, community-based housing, we are gravely concerned that HUD is on the verge of implementing a rule that applies strict quotas and denying preferences to individuals with disabilities who are in desperate need of accessible housing.  Any such new rule will jeopardize the right of individuals with disabilities to participate in and benefit from housing that is equal to that afforded others. 

Specifically, we are extremely concerned that HUD is currently pressuring the State of Arizona to sign a “voluntary” compliance agreement that would prohibit an award winning housing project called Apache ASL Trails from giving preference to its state-of-the-art accessible housing units first to individuals who need those accessibility features and services provided at Apache ASL Trails once the total number of residents with disabilities exceeds HUD’s arbitrary quota of 25%.  There is no statute or regulation that mandates any such 25% quota, and the imposition of any such quota is an ideological principle that ignores the reality of housing needs for many people with disabilities including deaf and hard of hearing individuals. There is, however, law that requires that these individuals be given a full and equal opportunity to live in accessible housing that meets their needs.

While many of the residents at Apache ASL Trails are deaf and chose to live there because they sought out the desperately needed accessibility features of this unique complex, not all the residents are deaf.  Apache ASL Trails opened in 2011 and there has never been a discrimination complaint filed against them nor have any qualified applicants been rejected by Apache ASL Trails.  You do not need to be deaf to live at Apache ASL Trails. 

Yet HUD is threatening to take federal housing funding away from the entire State of Arizona because the Arizona Department of Housing is defending the right of individuals with disabilities to live in the housing of their choice, including Apache ASL Trails.  While HUD is currently attempting to force arbitrary maximum quotas on Apache ASL Trails and denying preference to individuals with disabilities at this project, HUD has indicated that it is on the precipice of applying quotas and the denial of preferences to all affordable housing projects in the United States.

HUD’s new policy would require state housing agencies and owners of rental properties to deny available, accessible housing units to individuals with disability. This is discrimination based on disability and it is unlawful.

Such a planned move by HUD alarms the NAD and its constituents – 48 million deaf and hard of hearing individuals, including those who are deaf-blind, late-deafened, and deaf with other disabilities. Attached with this letter is a list of national and local organizations representing segments of the deaf and hard of hearing community, all of whom join in this letter to HUD asking that public and subsidized housing specifically designed to be accessible to deaf and hard of hearing individuals be allowed and recognized as permissible under federal law and that preferences to such units be given first to the individuals who need those accessible units.

The well documented shortage of housing that meets the needs of individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing makes it absolutely critical that accessible housing first be offered to individuals needing the accessibility features of the unit as is required by the federal regulations that HUD itself wrote. As explained above, deaf and hard of hearing individuals are being forced to live in isolation and in fire-traps because of existing policies and practices. HUD should be seeking to alleviate such isolation and fire hazards, and in doing so, should be supporting housing like Apache ASL Trails.

Furthermore, HUD has been pursuing policies without consulting with the deaf and hard of hearing community, and this violates our maxim of “nothing about us without us.” We urge HUD to convene a meeting with all representatives of the deaf and hard of hearing community prior to any decision that adversely affect our housing rights.

The NAD believes that true housing equality means that individuals with a disability must be granted the freedom to choose to live in and benefit from housing that is equal to the housing available to others.  We urge you to immediately halt advancing arbitrary maximum quotas and to cease denying preferences to individuals who need the accessibility features of a unit and wish to live in that unit.  Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or need additional information.  We look forward to your response.

 

Sincerely,

Christopher D. Wagner     
President                         

Howard A. Rosenblum
Chief Executive Officer

 

cc: Senator Robert Menendez
Senator John McCain
Senator Jeff Flake
Representative Tom Latham
Director Michael Trailor, Arizona Department of Housing
Rebecca Bond, U.S. Department of Justice

 

Alabama Association of the Deaf

American Association of Deaf-Blind

American Society for Deaf Children

Arizona Association of the Deaf

Arizona Commission for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing

Arkansas Association of the Deaf

Association of Late Deafened Adults

California Association of the Deaf

California Coalition of Agencies Serving Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons, Inc.

Center on Deafness – Inland Empire

Cerebral Palsy and Deaf Organization

Commission of Deaf, Deaf-Blind, & Hard of Hearing Minnesotans

Communication Services of the Deaf

Connecticut Association of the Deaf

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Consumer Action Network

Deaf and Hard of Hearing In Government

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Service Center, Inc.

Deaf Community Services of San Diego

Deaf Counseling, Advocacy & Referral Agency

Deaf Seniors of America

Deaf Youth USA

Deafhood Foundation

Delaware Office for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing

District of Columbia Association of the Deaf

Empire State (New York) Association of the Deaf

Florida Association of the Deaf

Florida School for the Deaf Alumni Association

Georgia Association of the Deaf

Greater Los Angeles Association on Deafness, Inc.

Idaho Association of the Deaf

Illinois Association of the Deaf

Indiana Association of the Deaf

Indiana Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services

Iowa Association of the Deaf

Kansas Association of the Deaf

Kansas Commission for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing

Kentucky Association of the Deaf

Louisiana Association of the Deaf

Maine Division for the Deaf, Hard of Hearing & Late Deafened

Maryland Association of the Deaf

Massachusetts State Association of the Deaf

Michigan Deaf Association

Minnesota Association of Deaf Citizens

Missouri Association of the Deaf

Missouri Commission for Deaf & Hard of Hearing

National Asian Deaf Congress

National Black Deaf Advocates

National Council of Hispano Deaf & Hard of Hearing

Nebraska Association of the Deaf

Nevada Association of the Deaf

New Hampshire Association of the Deaf

New Jersey Association of the Deaf

New Mexico Association of the Deaf

NorCal Center on Deafness

North Carolina Association of the Deaf

North Carolina Division of Services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing

North Dakota Association of the Deaf

Ohio Association of the Deaf

Ohio School for the Deaf Alumni Association

Oklahoma Association of the Deaf

Orange County Deaf Equal Access Foundation

Oregon Association of the Deaf

Pennsylvania Society for the Advancement of the Deaf

Rhode Island Association of the Deaf

South Carolina Association of the Deaf

South Dakota Association of the Deaf

Telecommunications for the Deaf, Inc.

Tennessee Association of the Deaf

Texas Association of the Deaf

Tri-County – GLAD

Utah Association of the Deaf

Utah Division of Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing

Vermont Association of the Deaf

Virginia Association of the Deaf

Washington State Association of the Deaf

Wisconsin Association of the Deaf

List submitted on April 22, 2013