This story is based on interview excerpts of an upcoming episode of WXXI’s new Move to Include podcast on disability self-advocacy. The series launched on Jan. 12. Find it wherever you get your podcasts.
Mike Patterson was 18 and a few months out of a maximum security juvenile correctional facility when he was shot and paralyzed.
Decades later, he now helps others who have become disabled due to an act of violence. He does that through the non-profit Motivating People with Paralysis 360 that he founded. Through his experience and in his work with others, access to adequate housing is one of the biggest challenges he sees repeatedly.
“There is no pipeline from the rehabilitation unit to a handicap-accessible house, because you don't have time to get your house accessible in the four weeks that you're in the hospital. The waiting lists are through the roof because we're not building enough of them,” Patterson said.
“So, people are unnecessarily kept in nursing homes and county hospitals just simply because they have nowhere to go.”
Adequate housing is a fundamental human right, according to the United Nations. But for people with newly acquired disabilities, finding a place that is accessible, affordable, and nearby can be a challenge.
Nearly 2 in 10 households in the country include a person with a mobility-related disability, according to a 2019 survey by the U.S. Dept. Of Housing and Urban Development. Of those households, about 40% do not live in a fully accessible home.
In New York state, about 1 in 5 adults report having a mobility limitation, according to the state Department of Health.
“I've dealt with individuals who have kids... and they live in places where it's not accessible," Patterson said. "So, can you imagine having to take care of a three- or four-year-old, but you need people to still carry you up and down the steps to take a shower and carry you down the steps to cook meals for this kid? That's a difficult life.”
Patterson is familiar with how difficult it can be to find accessible, affordable housing, and the ways it affects other aspects of life. In his case, he stayed in a homeless shelter while on the waitlist for a housing option that would accommodate his wheelchair.
“If you come home with a new disability and you don't have somewhere that's accessible and stable that you can just simply access the bathroom on your own and lay down in a clean bed every night on your own,” Patterson said. “One of the first red flags I always see is people's mental health start to deteriorate some from that.”
There could be opportunity for improvement in the local housing stock, Patterson said, if there were more incentives for places to be built with more accessible units. That in turn, he said, could improve not just someone’s quality of life and their relationships, but also the local economy.
"There's a certain level of economic independence that comes with having a stable house, because now I'm able to go to work and now I'm able to contribute to society," Patterson said. "Now I'm able to feel good about myself, but that all goes back to, ‘Do I have somewhere stable to live and wash up every day?’”
