Housing in DuPage County
The
DuPage
Center
for Independent Living does not own or manage any housing. We only have
information and referral services for housing. Most of the calls the Center gets
concerning housing are in two areas----affordable housing and accessible
housing.
Affordable Housing
In
DuPage
County
, most housing is pretty expensive.
DuPage
County
has the second highest cost of living of all counties in the
United States
. The affordable housing in
DuPage
County
is mostly subsidized housing, funded through federal vouchers. This program is
generally known as the Section 8 Program. This program works by having a person
pay a percentage of his income-----not a percentage of the rent—to a landlord
for his rent and the Federal Government pays the difference. Each county that
administers this program works through its local housing authority. In
DuPage
County
this would be the DuPage Housing Authority (www.dupagehousing.org).
The DuPage Housing Authority
administers one form of the Section 8 Program, the housing choice vouchers. As
of August 2002, the housing authority in
DuPage
County
has not received any new vouchers from HUD (the Office of Housing and Urban
Development) (www.hud.org). Although the
DuPage Housing Authority is still open and running, it is just working on
current vouchers. For all practical purposes, it is useless for people looking
for a new voucher today,
The other form of the Section 8
Program is site-based or landlord-based housing vouchers. This program is also
funded by HUD, but is administered by HUD directly with the owner/landlord.
Instead of a person who has a voucher seeking out a possible landlord, a person
would seek out a particular apartment in a particular building that has a
voucher attached to it. Our Center has a list of these buildings in
DuPage
County
. If you would like a copy, please call our Center at 630-469-2300 and ask for
Mike or e-mail Mike at mike_dupagecil@sbcglobal.net.
One of the reasons that HUD has
not granted the DuPage Housing Authority (or most any other housing authority)
any new vouchers since 2002 has a lot to do with HUD’s new housing focus: home
ownership. HUD would rather put its money into mortgage vouchers than rental
vouchers. HUD began a program to turn rental vouchers into mortgage vouchers in
2003, but you still need a current rental voucher to get into the program.
If you are interested in home
ownership (and do not have a current DuPage rental voucher), there is still help
available. The latest new program is being administered by the
DuPage
Home
Ownership
Center
(www.dhoc.org). The program begins with a
short educational meeting, followed by a credit consultation and finally leads
to either help getting a specific three-part mortgage loan or help getting your
credit repaired, so that you can eventually apply for the same mortgage loan..
Accessible Housing
Accessibility can mean a lot of
different things to a lot of people. In the housing field accessibility means
that a housing unit has certain accessible features: wider doorways (usually at
least 36 inches wide), easy to access outlets and light switches, re-enforced
walls for possible grab bars in the tub or shower, enough room in a small room
for a normal wheelchair to swivel around 360°, ramps or elevators and counters
in a kitchen or bathroom that a wheelchair could slide under. There are a few
other accessible features that could be included, but this is a good start.
There are probably some really
accessible housing units in
DuPage
County
, but they are probably pretty expensive; possibly even custom built. Most
people who contact the
DuPage
Center
for Independent Living cannot afford a custom-built home, so I try to locate
something else for them. There are a couple of accessible housing units in
DuPage
County
. One is the
Illinois
Center
for Independent Living in
Naperville
(630-357-0077). All units in this building are accessible. Another accessible
apartment building----also in
Naperville
----is
Maple Court
(630-357-3696). This building was built by Bill Malleris, a man who uses a
wheelchair. He built this building to be accessible to anyone.
Another option for accessible housing is making your current housing unit
more accessible to you. If you own a housing unit, you can determine what your
accessibility needs are and have your housing unit altered to become more
accessible. If you rent your housing unit, you will probably need your
landlord’s permission to make the accessible changes. Depending on the age of
your housing unit, you may be able to force the landlord to let you make the
accessible changes. If you have any questions about your rights to a more
accessible housing unit, just call the Center and ask for Mike.
To become more independent in your housing may mean some financial help. To
make housing units more accessible usually means a financial investment. To help
any disabled person in
Illinois
to become more independent (and having a more accessible housing unit is part
of that), a special loan program is now being offered by the Illinois Assistive
Technology Program (IATP) (www.techconnect.iltech.org).
This low-cost loan program can loan you as little as $500 and as much as
$40,000. The interest rate is only 3½ % and, depending on circumstances, the
loan can be extended for many years. All the paperwork for the Tech Connect loan
is available at our Center.
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