Monday, November 29, 1999
Home for disabled built as example
Advocates: New houses better than remodeled
BY SARA J. BENNETT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cheryl Burke gets a tour of her new Silverton Home, designed especially for the disabled.
(Gary Landers photo)
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SILVERTON — The ranch-style house on Elwynne Drive went up to prove a point to the state of Ohio:
It is better and cheaper to design and build new housing for the disabled than to buy, repair and refurbish traditional homes.
As ordinary as the Silverton house looks from the outside, on the inside, it is special to a person with disabilities.
Things most folks take for granted — light switches, electrical outlets, shelves — are placed for someone in a wheelchair to reach easily.
Rooms are bigger, and doors are extra wide so a chair can roll through.
At least one apartment building in Cincinnati was designed for the disabled, but this four-person home is the first family residence in this area, designers said at a Sunday open house.
Funded by the Housing Network of Hamilton County and the Catholic Federation for the Mentally Retarded, the land and 1,559-square-foot home cost $180,000.
In the past, the Housing Network — a nonprofit housing corporation affiliated with the Hamilton County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (MRDD) — bought and refurbished homes for accessibility.
That's expensive, said Dave Gross, an MRDD employee who designed the house. Ohio will pay for older homes and adapt them for the disabled, but it won't provide new construction funds for housing for people with mental retardation and developmental disabilities, he said.
“We're trying to show the folks in Columbus who provide the funding that it can be done,” said Sue Breiner, director of planning and community relations for MRDD. “And it benefits the people because they become part of the neighborhood. When you're in an apartment, you're in 50 to 60 units, and you don't get to feel as much a part of the community.”
She said it typically costs an additional 50 percent of the purchase price to modify an existing residence to make it handicap accessible.
The supply of adaptable one-floor homes is limited, Ms. Breiner said, and adapting them is just the beginning of the costs.
Frequently, they are older homes and furnaces or other major appliances fail, adding to the costs.
Were funds available, Ms. Breiner said, her group could satisfy the demand for 10 to 15 homes like the one opened in Silverton on Sunday.
Three women will split the $1,000 monthly rent for the new house. Staff provided by Catholic Residential Services will be on duty all of the time and a fourth bedroom is dedicated to their comfort.
Cheryl Burke plans to move in this weekend. The 38-year-old Kenwood woman visited the home Sunday with her caregiver, Angela Collins.
“To have an accessible bathroom and kitchen is a big thing,” Ms. Collins said. “That's the main thing we've been trying to find.”
The Housing Network of Hamilton County manages 23 homes. The network plans to partner with Catholic Residential Services again to build a second new home sometime next year.
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