Monday, March 7, 2011

Apartments for Disabled People

My dad is disabled and currently collects SSI. This is the only source of income that he has and he has no assets. Since he gets barely any income, he has had to move out of his current apartment. They had been raising the rates on him every year for awhile and he just cannot afford it anymore. He has looked at other places in town but none of them are within his price range. He was close to giving up and was considering moving into a place with roommates.

I did not want to see him have to move into a place with roommates because at his age I do not think that he should have to do that. Having roommates is something college kids do and not grown adults. So I did some research and found out that my dad would qualify for low income apartments for disabled people. Basically what happens is that the government would give funds to the apartment owners and the owners would then lower the rent.

I helped my dad find these types of apartments by going to the HUD website and doing a property search. I searched according to the state and then the zip code that he wanted to live in. I was able to pull up a few properties in the area. I took my dad out to these properties to have a look at them. We had to make sure the apartment complex was disability friendly. For instance, we made sure the apartment community was close to grocery stores and other retail stores. When we got to the communties, they all looked pretty well maintained. I was not expecting much but these apartments exceeded my expectations. Inside the apartments, we checked to see whether the door and hallways were wide enough for my dad to get through with his wheelchair. We checked the light switches to see if my dad could reach it from his wheelchair. We also asked the apartment staff to give us apartments that were downstairs since my dad is unable to go upstairs. There are alot of things that you have to consider if you are a disabled person looking to rent a place. After all the physicalities of the apartment checked out, we filled out the information required to lease an apartment and my dad move in soon after. He has been pretty happy with his new place and also the fact that he’s able to save some money. This is definitely a great government program since it helps so many people in need.