Priced Out In 2004
The Housing Crisis For People With Disabilities
The major findings from the Priced Out in 2004 study including the following:
- In 2004, as a national average, a person receiving SSI needed to pay 109.6 percent of their entire monthly income in order rent a modest one-bedroom unit.
- From 2002 to 2004, the housing affordability gap for people with disabilities continued to grow alarmingly while federal housing officials repeatedly proposed re-directing essential rent subsidy funds to higher-income households.
- During the six years since Priced Out in 1998 was published, the amount of monthly SSI income needed to rent a modest one-bedroom unit has risen an astonishing 59 percent – from 69 percent of SSI in 1998 to 109.6 percent of SSI in 2004.
- People with disabilities receiving SSI are also priced out of smaller studio/efficiency rental units. In 2004, the national average cost of these units rose to 96.1 percent of monthly SSI, an increase of 8 percent from 2002.
- People with disabilities who rely on SSI payments continue to be among the lowest-income citizens in the United States. In 2004, the national average income of a person with a disability receiving SSI fell to a new low of 18.4 percent of median income – down from 18.8 percent in 2002.
- Over the past six years, since the publication of Priced Out in 1998, the national average income of a one-person household receiving SSI disability payments dropped 25 percent relative to median income – from 24.4 percent of median income in 1998 to 18.4 percent in 2004.
