Disability & Housing, Part 3: Home Ownership

Joeita Gupta:
I'm Joeita Gupta, and this is The Pulse. A home is where love resides, where memories are created, where friends belong, and laughter never ends. A house might be made of bricks and mortar, but it's also made of dreams and hopes. But above and over all that, for people with disabilities, a home can become a sanctuary and a place where, at least in theory, there are few, if any, barriers. However, the road to home ownership can be long and winding just about for anybody. If you have a disability, like most things in life, buying a home can get that much more complicated when unanticipated problems arise, and then you have additional considerations in terms of location, proximity to services and amenities, and the accessibility of the home itself. Today, we discuss disability and home ownership. It's time to put to your finger on the pulse.
Hello and welcome to The Pulse on AMI-audio. I'm Joeita Gupta, and I'm joining you from Accessible Media Studios in Toronto. Now I am really excited and a little sad to be wrapping up our miniseries exploring disability and housing. I have mixed feelings about it. I'm excited because we have a great guest, but I'm sad because all good things must come to an end. My guest today is Angela Fox. Angela is the host of the Accessibility Is Home podcast and the author of the book, My Blue Front Door: How a wheelchair user bought a home during the recession. Angela, hello and welcome to The Pulse. I'm really delighted to have you with us.

Angela Fox:
Thank you. I am absolutely excited. I'm always thrilled to hear other podcasters talking about disability home ownership, housing for the disabled because it is a much-needed topic. So I am just thrilled to be invited. Even though I'm in the States, Canada is just our next-door neighbour, so I'm excited.

Joeita Gupta:
Angela, your book is called My Blue French Door. Why did you pick My Blue Front Door as your title?

Angela Fox:
Yeah, I get that question a lot, and I talk about it a little bit in the preamble, but I did it because so much of accessibility as far as symbolism is that handicap sign, which is a blue and white wheelchair for handicapped parking. It's an international symbol. Unfortunately, even my closest friends, while I was looking and buying a home, was shocked to find that there was no accessible house that I could buy, that I would have to do so many modifications. When I asked them, "Why do you not know that? You've known me for so many years?" And they literally said, "We see all the handicap signs everywhere" in businesses and parking, that they just assumed that there would be legal requirements for accessible housing to buy. So it was just a nod as far as the title goes to say that even though you see the symbolism of the handicap sign, in reality, not everything is accessible. So that's why I named it that title.

Joeita Gupta:
You pick a really interesting point because in America you've had the ADA, the Americans for Disabilities Act, for well over 30 years now. If you look at places like Norway and Australia, they do have standards for accessible housing. Why have we fallen behind? And I say we, because I think your experience in America lines up with the experience of many people with disabilities in Canada, where things that claim to be accessible aren't actually accessible, including housing. So where is the gap?

Angela Fox:
The gap is actually a legal gap. So what most people don't realize is that the ADA does not apply to private housing. The ADA applies to businesses. Things are open to the public transportation, and employment. It does not apply to unsubsidized housing, meaning housing that's being built without a state or federal government. So in essence, if I built a new home and I was going to sell it, nothing has to be based on the ADA-accessible as long as I don't get government funding. On top of that, we do have the Fair Housing Act. The Fair Housing Act was actually established in the '60s. It's for discrimination, but disability was not included in the Fair Housing Act, even though it was passed in the late '60s, until 1988. The reason why 1988 is so important is that the ADA was passed in 1990.
I have an episode when I talk about how the Fair Housing Act amendment that included disabilities in 1988 actually made it apparent to the disability community in the United States that it is a civil rights issue because the Housing Act is actually part of the Civil Rights Act. The Fair Housing Act, even though we talk about it as a standalone act, is not. It's part of the 1964 Civil Rights Act of the United States, and it's just a clause that talks about fair housing. It's not a separate thing. So when the disability community was finally included in the 1964 Act and included in the clause about their housing, that really told us we are now a minority group that has civil rights issues. That actually helped the ADA get passed in 1990. But the reason why it was so behind is because it was passed before the ADA, which is far more expansive. It really does consider a lot of different things.
So not only was it passed before, it was very limited because of that, meaning, if you have housing units of four or more, then you had to have so many barrier-free modifications included. Barrier-free, just by the name, tells you that it's really just pretty much access into the building or access into the apartment or condo. It's not including people who might need modifications for visual impairments, those who are on the spectrum, hearing impaired. All those things are not necessarily included if you look at what the barrier-free modifications of the Fair Housing Act requirement is. Then again, it's four or more units that are built after 1989. What that means is that single-family housing, because it's not a unit, is not required to be barrier-free, even in limited circumstances. So that's why we're behind, because there's no law that's adequate.

Joeita Gupta:
Right. I had a guest on the program last week talking about how we need to really get away from this idea that we just should have accessible homes. She said, "What we really should be aiming for are homes that are universally designed." Do you think we're there yet? When you look back on your own experience of finding a home, and then, of course, you go on to renovate your home, what is it going to take for us to get to a place where we have homes that are universally designed where we're not just checking boxes and saying, "Okay, we've got a ramp, we've got a shower rail." But really getting past that check box and that checklist mentality and looking at creating homes that are truly universally designed that people can live in their homes for the duration of their lives. Even if you're not disabled now, you might be 20 years down the road.

Angela Fox:
I actually would push back about the universal design only because it's very important and I talk a lot about, but I think what we need to focus on is Living in Place. So I'm a certified Living in Place, and there's a wonderful institution in United States called the Living in Place Institute. What it does is focuses on three things, children's safety, universal design for the disabled, and aging in place. So it's a very encompassing perspective of when you are talking about housing. The reason why I think that's so important is, at the end of the day, the disability community can say, "Hey, what we build can be used by anybody." There's still that stereotype. There's still not that. What is the market value for the housing developers, for advocates, or anybody to say, "We need accessible housing." Because the disability community is so considered the other?
So Living in Place says, "Hey, you need to design homes that focus on children's safety." So that means parents will be interested in, obviously, the disability community through universal design, and then aging in place for the elderly or for those who have some medical needs but may or may not rise to a disability yet. So I really think if we stop siloing ourselves as if we're not part of the housing market, it's a way to get over that threshold. Then last, we're not counted. I can't find any stats outside of the elderly that says, "This is how many people who are disabled own their own home." We're not even researching it in the United States. It's just, "So many people who are elderly own their homes." That's the closest data that we really have to measure. What is home ownership look like for the disability community?

Joeita Gupta:
I know of at least one person in the United States who owns her own home, and that is Angela Fox. Angela, what led you down the road to home ownership? Was it something that was aspirational, like you always knew you wanted to buy your own place? Or did it become something that you almost came to out of necessity when rental accommodations weren't really working out?

Angela Fox:
A little bit of both. To be perfectly honest, I was born with my disability, paraplegic. I was born in '82, so before the ADA. While a lot of things have improved, my housing situation really didn't, outside of what my parents did. I was very fortunate because my father was a mechanical and electrical engineer, so he could build me anything I needed as far as the home modifications. But what really made me go over the threshold was the fact that my living costs for an apartment was extremely expensive. I lived in the DC area, and then the housing market crashed. I honestly saw a wonderful opportunity because one thing I was very concerned about, like many of us, is, "If I can afford the house, can I afford the modifications?" And there was this little sweet spot. Unfortunately, a lot of people lost their homes, and my heart breaks out to them.
But for me, I could buy a house that normally would be difficult to buy before the recession, and therefore all the additional savings I had I could actually use for modifications. Then there was also some very unique programs in the state of Maryland that also allowed me to afford the modification and the home-buying experience. So it just all lined up. I will tell you, all my friends and family were like, "Why are you getting a house?" Meaning, can I maintain it? All those stereotypes, and then when I told them I was spending $2,000 a month for a one-bedroom apartment and I could buy a home that was slightly bigger for $1,400 or $1,500, suddenly they're like, "Oh my gosh, I understand why now you're buying." You could hire people to come in and clean your home when you're saving $400 to $600 a month.

Joeita Gupta:
Also, you mentioned in the book that you were having trouble with getting that accessible unit. You needed an accessible van, a parking spot, and that wasn't available, even though the landlord said they'd get to it and they never get to it. In another apartment, you said the washroom was accessible but the kitchen was not. So one of the reasons, I suppose, it was attractive to buy your own home is, you can modify it to your own specifications. So not just what would work for a person in a wheelchair, but what would work for Angela?

Angela Fox:
Yeah. That really was it. Although when I saw a designing, because I want to make sure the market value of the home was maintained because, for me, it was also an investment. We all care about generational wealth through real estate. So for me, it was, "Can I design it that meets my needs but would be universally designed?" And that way, I knew I would be devaluing the home if I needed to sell it. But certainly crawling. I tell you, the number one modification that was on my list was the bathroom because I literally had to crawl into the bathtub. I really wanted to be able to soak because I had scoliosis.
So I have a lot of aches and pains, so a shower may keep me clean, it would help me with the pains that I would have. I was getting older. I was 30 and climbing in and out was starting to get a little bit of a problem. My ego was there, and so the bathroom was the first thing on my bucket list. So certainly, modifications far that was accessible to me was a very attractive, and as a side note, because I own the home outside of zoning, specific zoning things, I could do whatever I want. It didn't have to meet the ADA standards because it was a business. So it really provided me with the freedom that I would've got far more than if I rented in an apartment or even low-income housing.

Joeita Gupta:
So I'm reading your book, and I'm blown away by the detail. You've talked about the laws, and we touched on it earlier in our conversation, and you talk about all these great financial aid programs, and on and on it goes, and I think to myself, "This is terrific. What am I going to talk to Angela about?" Because none of the supply is in Canada. Then I realized that what the book is really talking about is setting out an approach, if you will, for people with disabilities who might want to buy their home. Now, I realize it might be a bit of a tall order to ask you to summarize the entire book in a couple of minutes, but what would you say is your approach that you advocate for people with disabilities who want to buy their own home?

Angela Fox:
Yeah, it is a lot, but I would say being knowledgeable and empowerment will be the two words. Knowing the landscape that's out there. At that time, I was 30 years old, but I'll really go into, "I'm so glad my voice was heard." I'm thrilled to hear that you saw that I was trying to give an approach because, at the end of the day, anybody can research the resources that are out there, but how do you systematically go, "What are the unspoken barriers that you may face?"
So I talk about how you need to make sure that you are the expert of your disability. No one else is. I talk about understanding what the laws can and cannot do. Understanding that not everything is created equally in the disability community, as far as some things, I focus on one disabled versus another disability. Then I talk about how you communicate with your realtors and your contractors because, at the end of the day, I don't care if it's here in United States, Canada, or the Netherlands. People who are in the business of housing don't understand what our needs are, and they do have those stereotypes. So how do you communicate effectively with all those individuals as well as fundraising and managing the move as well?

Joeita Gupta:
Yeah, it's an interesting idea because I bought my first home and then I sold it, and to my real estate agent, who's the selling agent, I said, "You know what? This house has been modified to within an inch to suit someone who's visually impaired, and I think that this is a really important piece of information to include on the listing." And she was very dismissive about it. She's a nice person, but she was really dismissive about it, saying, "Oh, that's just a submarket. I don't really know if it'll make much of a difference to a potential buyer." How important is it when we think about real estate listings to start including information about accessibility and disability?

Angela Fox:
It's imperative. It is absolutely imperative. It's a waste of resources. At the end of the day, realtors should be mindful that they're trying to sell the home. So the more added features, whether it's for disability or not, will only make the house accessible. It just breaks my heart to hear that you experienced a lot of what I experienced when I was looking for a home. It's very unfortunate, to say the least, but certainly we need to do that. We need to do that. Since I've become a podcaster, one thing I've learned is that the riches are in the niches.
So if you go to the podcasting conferences here in the United States, they really talk about the fact that the more narrow you can get, sometimes you'll be the only voice in that market. With people being disabled being the largest minority, it just boggles my mind to think that whatever accessibility features you have in a home, that it will not be desired by somebody. Personally, I'm just saying outside of... It's just the ignorance. The realtors don't realize that we are the largest minority in the United States and in the world, by the way.

Joeita Gupta:
I wish I'd thought about it the same way when I went to buy my house 17 years ago, but the one thing you say in your book is, "Even before you start to think about where you buy and what your budget is, spend two weeks envisioning your ideal home, write down everything you'd like to have." Why is that process so important?

Angela Fox:
That process is important because I learned that as a conflict coach. My day job, even though I'm a lawyer, I'm a mediator and a conflict coach. There is a tendency where we're dealing with conflict, and it's just neuroscience that we think of the worst. There's all kinds of theories about why that is, but it's very challenging when we don't know the answer to something. To think of it in a positive light, like, "What is your ideal result?" There's always the negativity, the thought of narrowing your scope as far as what's possible because you don't have the answer. It's just how human nature generally deals with conflict. So I see that all the time when people say, "When I become disabled, when I get older, I'll just go in assisted living." And I go, "Why is that?" And they will say, "My house is not accessible. I can't make it accessible. I can't maintain it." And I ask them, "How do you know that?" And honestly, they don't. They just jump to that conclusion.
So when you're dealing with all the, looking for a house, dealing with realtors, dealing with contractors, which I highly encourage you to deal with contractors early on before you buy the house, not necessarily afterwards, but when you're dealing with all this, it's a lot of valuables, and it's really important that you have your North Star, meaning this is what I want. Otherwise, there's a value, high probability that you are going to let yourself down and end up buying a home that does not meet your needs because you are stuck in that same idea that everybody else is talking to you about.

Joeita Gupta:
All right. Look, I started with a predictable question, and I'm going to end with a predictable question, which is, what advice would you give someone with a disability who is looking to buy their first home?

Angela Fox:
Oh, my goodness, definitely do it. Definitely do it, and make sure you're doing it in baby steps. So don't set yourself low if you are in low-income housing right now. Certainly, make sure that you are planning ahead, even if you don't know how. It is just imperative because the world is not going to be accessible, your home should be. So don't sell yourself short. Reach out to people that have the resources. I'm certainly available. I do consulting. You can reach out to me at horizontalhouses.com. All my information is there. You can read the book, but certainly start mapping it out step by step and really push yourself to get that home.

Joeita Gupta:
Angela, thank you so much for speaking to me today. It was so great chatting with you about this.

Angela Fox:
Thank you so much for having me.

Joeita Gupta:
Angela Fox is a podcaster, lawyer, mediator, and the author of My Blue Front Door: How a wheelchair user bought a home in a recession. There's a Kindle edition of the book, and you can also get a hard copy if that's how you'd like to read it. That's all the time we have for today. Like I said, there's lots of mixed feelings about wrapping up the series about housing and disability. It's near and dear to my heart. I've had many struggles with housing. I also work in housing. My day job is in a not-for-profit, working with tenants. Very early on as a young adult, I made a choice to buy my house and to buy my home, and I have to tell you, as a person with a disability, there was a moment of unreality there because I spent a lot of time on social assistance living paycheck to paycheck. I didn't think at the time that it would ever happen for me that I would ever get to own my own home. But the stars aligned, as it were, and I was able to find a beautiful place to call my home.
So I hope that if home ownership is your dream and you are a person with a disability, you won't shrink from the challenge or discard the dream because it just seems too impossible. As you heard from Angela's story, it is doable. Just take those baby steps, and who knows, you might be the proud owner of your own condo or your own home designed to your specifications, a place that you can truly put down roots and call your own.
Folks, I've got to run for today. If you have any feedback, if you want to share your housing stories with us, you can give us a call at 1-866-509-4545. That's 1-866-509-4545. Don't forget to leave us permission to play the voicemail on the program. You can also send us an email. I love when people write to us, and it doesn't happen as much as I'd like, but please write to us at feedback@ami.ca. You can also find us on Twitter at @AMIaudio. Use #PulseAMI. You can find me on Twitter at @JoeitaGupta. The videographer for today is Matthew McGurk, Marc Aflalo is the technical producer, Ryan Delehanty, he's the coordinator for AMI-audio podcast, and Andy Frank is the indomitable manager for AMI-audio. On behalf of the team, thanks for listening. I've been your host, Joeita Gupta. Enjoy the rest of your day.