Households that include people with disabilities are more likely than others to have very low-incomes, pay more than half of their income for rent, and have other housing problems, such as living in inadequate or overcrowded housing, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's recent report "Worst Case Housing Needs of People with Disabilities — Supplemental Findings of the Worst Case Housing Needs 2009: Report to Congress."
The report's based primarily on recent estimates from the American Housing Survey, but also compares them to results from the American Community Survey, and the National Health Interview Survey.
In Vermont, an individual with disabilities living on Supplemental Security Income (SSI) earns just $726 a month. To afford an apartment and only pay 30% of one's income for housing and utilities means struggling to find a unit that costs less than $218 per month.
Approximately 4% of rental units in Vermont have rents below this amount, according to American Community Survey estimates for 2005-2009.