Disabled Especially Hard Hit by Quake

People with disabilities are having a particularly hard time finding replacement housing in the wake of the earthquake, according to an advocate for the disabled.

Norma Vescovo, director of the Van Nuys-based Independent Living Center of Southern California, said Monday that low-income apartments were particularly hit hard by the earthquake, disproportionately hurting the disabled, many of whom live on fixed incomes.

In the first two weeks of February, the center gained 180 clients, most with housing problems, Vescovo said. Before the Jan. 17 quake, the center signed up 40 to 50 new clients a month on average.

“What is happening is that they’re competing with all the people who are trying to find housing (and another problem is that) they are limited in their income,” Vescovo said. “In addition, the place has to be accessible for their physical needs, so that narrows the scope of the places they can rent.”

Jane Small, chairwoman of the Los Angeles County Commission on Disabilities, said the quake made already limited housing stock even more difficult to find.

“Accessible housing is practically nonexistent to begin with,” she said, and now disabled people are competing with others who were displaced for affordable apartments.

They are forced to live with friends and relatives, whose homes are often not wheelchair-accessible, she said.

“What independence they had is disappearing rapidly,” Small said.

If landlords raise their rents to cover earthquake repair costs, that will exacerbate the problem, Vescovo said. One reason that it is difficult for people with disabilities to look for housing is that many of their friends and neighbors who would have helped by providing rides have been displaced by the quake. Debris on sidewalks has also posed an impediment to the disabled in getting around, she said.

Some disabled people mistakenly believe that they are not eligible for 18-month emergency rent vouchers because their buildings were not condemned, Vescovo said. If their buildings have non-functioning elevators or blocked disabled-accessible entrances, disabled people have a right to the vouchers, she said.