EQUITY AND INCLUSION -- Part 14

Planning, Zoning and other Land Use Policy Best Practices to Erase Errors of the Past that Perpetuated Bias and Deepened Inequality

Mark Thompson, PVA

When it comes to planning inequities for people with disabilities, HUD surveys have documented that fewer than one percent of all housing is move-in ready for wheelchair users. 

Virtually all of that tiny one percent is new build multifamily housing. 

Fewer than five percent of all housing is even moderately move-in ready for people with physical disabilities who do not use a wheelchair full-time.

“Much like affordable housing, you give developers an economic incentive to get them to build accessible units: increasing density or expediting permitting — if they provide more universally accessible units,” says Mark Thompson, AIA, senior associate director of Architecture for Paralyzed Veterans of America.