DREDF Comments Urging TCAC to Adopt Increased Accessibility Standards

November 20, 2020

Via Email to judith.blackwell@treasurer.ca.gov and anthony.zeto@treasurer.ca.gov
California Tax Credit Allocation Committee
915 Capitol Mall, Room 485
Sacramento, CA 95814

Dear Committee Members:

The Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF) appreciates the opportunity to submit comments on the proposed changes to the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Regulations. DREDF strongly urges you to adopt the proposal to increase fully accessible units in new construction projects (Section 10325(f)(7)(K) and we commend you for not decreasing the senior housing mobility accessibility requirements (Section 10325(g)(2)(B).

DREDF is national law and policy center that protects and advances the civil and human rights of people with disabilities through legal advocacy, training, education, and public policy and legislative development in the areas of: employment, housing, access to government services and benefits, transportation, architectural access, public accommodations, and education. We are a unique alliance of adults with disabilities and parents of children with disabilities and our vision is a just world where all people, with and without disabilities, live full and independent lives free of discrimination.

People with disabilities and their families have faced a longstanding shortage of accessible and affordable housing in California. The California Department of Housing and Community Development’s (HCD) recent 2020 Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice (AI) provides extensive documentation of the overwhelming disparity between the need for affordable accessible housing and the existence of such housing.[1] The AI found that there are more than 4 million Californians with disabilities, many of whom need units designed with features accessible to them.[2] The AI further found that disabled Californians face extreme challenges finding housing that is both affordable and accessible. In California, 17.9 percent of income eligible households (1,054,895) include someone with an ambulatory limitation who needs the features of a mobility unit.[3] And 12.8 percent of TCAC-eligible households (754,295) include someone with a hearing or visual disability who needs the technology and other accessible features provided in a communication unit.[4] This adds up to nearly 2 million income eligible households with a member who has a disability requiring accessible features.[5]

These percentages are far higher than are found in the general population. In other words, people with disabilities are disproportionately represented among the lower income households served by TCAC. And among TCAC-eligible households, the percentages increase with decreased income. Extremely low-income households are more than twice as likely to include an individual with a disability than households earning above moderate income.[6] This helps illustrate that most low and moderate-income households with members with a disability are in need of housing assistance.

We also know that a history of racial inequities in housing have contributed to the high percentages of Black and African American people experiencing homelessness[7] and that many people experiencing homelessness are also people with disabilities.[8] The lack of affordable housing is one of the leading causes of homelessness and housing displacement.[9] Although the Governor has made an admirable effort to address the homelessness epidemic through a number of programs including Project Roomkey and Project Homekey with a reported 22,300 number of people housed,[10] much more needs to be done to address the unacceptable reality of nearly a quarter of a million people living on our streets,[11] people who are disproportionately Black and disabled. The TCAC is moving in this direction with its proposed increases in its accessible units and its continued access requirements in senior housing.

Lack of accessible, affordable housing is also a continuing and significant barrier to integrated community living, making it difficult for people with disabilities and older adults to move from segregated facilities into the community. Many of the over 400,000 Californians in long-term care facilities[12] and hundreds of thousands in other institutions cannot leave those institutions because appropriate accessible housing is not available. It is considerably cheaper to serve these Californians in residential settings, but inaccessible housing is an enormous barrier to doing so. Increasing the required number of accessible units including those near transit will help people with disabilities integrate into the community, enabling them to live independently and participate in education, work, and other community activities.

In addition, HCD’s AI highlights that the need for accessible housing is increasing as the state’s population ages.[13] California’s goals include providing accessible housing to seniors and older adults and helping them age in place.[14] The rescission of the cuts to required mobility units in senior housing will help seniors and older adults maintain their housing, and will prevent forced moves to congregate facilities simply because community units are not physically accessible.

The obligation to further fair housing includes an obligation to address and overcome segregation. See 24 C.F.R. §§ 5.150-5.180. TCAC’s proposed increase to the percentage of accessible units in new construction will make the agency a leader in addressing the harmful effects that segregation and unnecessary institutionalization have had on people with disabilities.  California Government Code Section 8899.50(b) requires all public agencies, including TCAC, to “administer its programs and activities relating to housing . . . in a manner to affirmatively further fair housing, and take no action that is materially inconsistent with its obligation to affirmatively further fair housing.” This means that TCAC must “tak[e] meaningful actions that . . . address significant disparities in housing needs. . ..” Section 8899.50(a)(1) further provides that “The duty to affirmatively further fair housing extends to all of a public agency’s activities and programs relating to housing and community development.”

People with mobility and/or sensory disabilities face a housing market with desperately few units accessible for their needs. The AI has identified insufficient accessible housing as one of its top 10 impediments to fair housing. One of its action items is to increase the number of accessible units in affordable housing and it specifically recommends doubling accessible development requirements in all state housing programs.[15] Adopting the proposed increase in accessible units required for new construction is exactly the type of meaningful action contemplated by Government Code Section 8899.50 and California’s AI.

Adopting the proposed increase also aligns with TCAC’s obligation under the Americans with Disabilities Act and California Government Code section 11135(b) to ensure that its programs are “accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities.”[16] “[H]istorically, society has tended to isolate and segregate individuals with disabilities.”[17] As the testimony at the Committee’s November 10 hearing and the data cited in Section B above illustrates, segregation and unnecessary institutionalization continues today in large part because people with disabilities have limited affordable accessible housing options. For the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program to be truly accessible to people with mobility and sensory disabilities, the Committee should adopt the proposed increase.

As we face a global pandemic where housing is healthcare, and an impending eviction crisis when the statewide eviction moratorium expires, TCAC’s accessibility proposals demonstrate leadership in responding to California’s housing crisis. The demonstrated need for accessible affordable housing justifies the retention of the accessibility requirements in rehabilitation and senior projects and the increase in the accessibility requirements in new construction projects. The testimony at the November 10 hearing illustrates the consequences to families and individuals when this need is not addressed.

TCAC’s proposal is an opportunity for California to address the accessibility gap in our own state and set an example for the rest of the nation. We urge the Committee to stand with people with disabilities and adopt these necessary accessibility changes. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Sydney Pickern
Staff Attorney
DREDF
Email: spickern@dredf.org
Phone: 510-644-2555

Cc:  Natasha Reyes, Disability Rights California, Natasha.Reyes@disabilityrightsca.org
Dara Schur, Disability Rights California, Dara.Schur@disabilityrightsca.org

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[1] Department of Housing and Community Development, Final 2020 Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice (June 2020) pages 52 – 57, available at https://www.hcd.ca.gov/policy-research/plans-reports/docs/final2020ai.pdf.

[2] Id. at 52.

[3] Id. at 57.

[4] Id.

[5] Id. at 56.

[6] Id. at 18.

[7] Cal Matters, Black people disproportionately homeless in California, updated March 5, 2020, available at https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2019/10/black-people-disproportionately-homeless-in-california/ (Across the state, the U.S. Census shows about 6.5% of Californians identify as black or African American, but they account for nearly 40% of the state’s homeless.)

[8] Homelessness Policy Research Institute, State of Homelessness in California Fact Sheet, available at https://socialinnovation.usc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Homelessness-in-CA-Fact-Sheet-v3.pdf (Nearly 28% of people experiencing homelessness in California are considered chronically homeless.)

[9] National Low Income Housing Coalition, The Primary Causes and Solutions to Homelessness, February 4, 2020, available at https://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/Causes-and-Solutions-to-Homelessness.pdf (The main reason people become homeless is because they cannot find housing they can afford.)

[10] Office of the Governor Gavin Newsom, Governor Newsom Announces Emergency Allocation of $62 Million to Local Governments to Protect People Living in Project Roomkey Hotels, November 16, 2020, available at
https://www.gov.ca.gov/2020/11/16/governor-newsom-announces-emergency-allocation-of-62-million-to-local-governments-to-protect-people-living-in-project-roomkey-hotels/

[11] Legislative Analyst’s Office, LAO Report, The Governor’s Homelessness Plan, February 11, 2020, available at https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4152; Los Angeles Times, Column: Facing a Wave of Evictions, California is About to Make thousands of Kids Homeless, August 7, 2020, available at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-08-07/coronavirus-eviction-rent-housing-crisis-cliff-california-covid, (As many as 1 million families across the state could find themselves at risk of being forced out of their homes.)

[12] California Association of Health Care Facilities, Facts and Statistics: Long Term Care Providers, available at https://www.cahf.org/About/Consumer-Help/Facts-and-Statistics.

[13] Department of Housing and Community Development, Final 2020 Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice (June 2020) page 53, available at https://www.hcd.ca.gov/policy-research/plans-reports/docs/final2020ai.pdf.

[14] California Health and Human Services Agency, Master Plan for Aging (September 2020) page 4 Priority 2, available at https://chhs-data-prod.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/2020/10/02140614/Master-Plan-for-Aging-Stakeholder-Advisory-Committee-Full-Report-accessible.pdf.

[15] Department of Housing and Community Development, Final 2020 Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice (June 2020) page 433, available at https://www.hcd.ca.gov/policy-research/plans-reports/docs/final2020ai.pdf.

[16] 28 C.F.R. section 35.150(a)(1), implementing 42 U.S.C. section 12132.

[17] 42 U.S.C. section 12101(a)(2).