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(In)accessible Housing Crisis
in Louisville, KY

The first-ever analysis of accessible housing demand and the failure of supply in Louisville

Disabling Infrastructures

Louisville’s Accessible Housing Gap

Let’s think about “disability” differently.
“Disablement” results from the particular environment in which we find ourselves.

“Disability” typically refers to a problem or deficit with an individual. Often people are disabled by barriers, not their bodies.

Wheelchair users are made “unable” by stairs, narrow doors, and broken sidewalks.  These are disabling infrastructures. When housing is inaccessible, it is disabling infrastructure.

The lack of accessible housing is not merely an inconvenience.  It is a crisis with public health implications and measurable consequences for tens of thousands of Louisville residents.

On this page, you will find data, testimony, images, and analysis meant to move you and inspire you to imagine a better way.

Housing infrastructure is fixable.  Here’s why we need to do it.  Start with the report.

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Terrell is a Black man sitting in a manual wheelchair in his bedroom and looking out the window.
a White 70-year-old man with grey hair sitting in his living room in a manual wheelchair wearing a checked button-down shirt and shorts and looking out the window with a smile on his face.
Kaelin sitting in a manual wheelchair looking out the window of his apartment.

Louisville faces a profound and growing accessible housing gap

Of the city’s approximately 333,000 housing units, only around 3,000 are wheelchair-accessible.

Yet, there are an estimated 18,000 households with a wheelchair user, which means:

6:1

households compete for every one accessible unit.

A bar graph entitled Louisville's Accessible Housing Gap with two green bars, one showing 18,031 households with a wheelchair user and the other showing 3,032 wheelchair-friendly housing units.

Louisville’s Accessible Housing Gap — households with a wheelchair user vs. wheelchair-friendly units.

A bar graph entitled Disabilities Breakdown by Income, with types of disabilities, including physical, on the x-axis, and percent of households from 0% to 45% on the y-axis, and different colored bars showing incomes under $20k, between $20-$49.9, between $50-$74.9k, between $75-$99.9k, between $100 - $149.9k, and above $150k. The graph clearly shows that lower income people have more disabilities.

Disabilities breakdown by income — disability concentrates among lower-income households.

The affordable accessible housing shortage is significant, even if harder to quantify.

What we know with confidence is the supply.

Louisville has only 586 affordable accessible multifamily units available to people of any age living on low incomes, compared to roughly 9,000 Louisvillians under age 65 with “ambulatory difficulties” living in poverty.

and only 1,122 accessible Section 202 units are reserved for low-income seniors, and approximately 8,300 seniors aged 65+ with “ambulatory difficulties” living in poverty.

Against any reasonable estimate of need, the number of affordable accessible units is inadequate.

The Accessible Housing Gap is Growing and Should Matter to Everyone

Each one of us is only one car accident, one slip-and-fall, one faulty blood vessel away from becoming a person with a disability.

And if we live long enough, accessibility will matter because disability skyrockets with age.

5x

In Louisville, adults aged 65+ are five times more likely to have a physical disability than those under age 65.

Download the report for more data on age and disability.

A bar graph entitled "Disability Rates Among Older Adults are Higher Across All Disability Categories" showing that people under the age of 65 are far less likely to experience disability (14%) compared to people over 65 (34%)

Disabilities breakdown by age — rates rise sharply for people over 65.

a bar graph with purple bars, an x-axis with with years 1960 to 2050, and a y-axis from 0 to 60,000 showing the population aged 80+ growing from under 10,000 in 1960 to 50,000 in 2040.

Population aged 80 or older, 1960–2050.

The accessible housing gap is growing as Louisville’s population ages

The number of Louisville residents aged 65+ is projected to increase by 25,000 over the next 20 years. The number of people aged 80+ is expected to grow by 19,000 over the same period.

Disability skyrockets with age. 44% of people 80+ have an “ambulatory” disability compared to 4.8% for people under 65.

Download the report for more information on age and disability projections.

The Impact of (In)accessible Housing

Kaelin is a Black man who is sitting in a manual wheelchair outside, wearing a light purple t-shirt smiling at the camera

Kaelin

For a time, he had to be carried up to third floor by his sister due to lack of accessible housing. Now lives in a place that takes huge effort just to bathe.
raham is a young White man sitting in a power wheelchair and wearing a dark grey hoodie, looking straight at the camera and smiling.

Graham

It was a 10-year odyssey for him and his parents to find accessible housing where he could live independently
Rachel is a White woman sitting in her home in a manual wheelchair wearing a blue button-down shirt, and dark pants looking straight at the camera with a smile on her face.

Rachel

When house hunting she couldn’t get into most, so when she found one with a ramp she bought it even though she had to renovate to make it usable.
Garrison is a White 70-year-old man with grey hair sitting in his living room in a manual wheelchair wearing a checked button-down shirt and shorts, and looking straight at the camera with a serious expression.

Garrison

In his search for a condo, he had to settle for the “least awful” option and had to renovate the bathroom to make it usable.
Terrell is a Black man sitting in a manual wheelchair on the porch of his apartment. He is wearing glasses, a white short-sleeved shirt and dark pants, and he's smiling at the camera.

Terrell

Moving back to Louisville after earning a Masters, he had to settle for an apartment that’s not very accessible and has an elevator that breaks down regularly.

These are the kinds of voices you’ll encounter here. They’ve struggled through the accessible housing gap and are living resiliently in spite of the disabling infrastructures we continue to create. The story of (in)accessible housing is about them, but it’s also about us as a city and society.

(In)accessible housing is a major social determinant of health.  Safe, affordable, stable, and suitable housing enables individuals to lead healthy, productive lives and contributes to stronger, more resilient communities.

ACCESSIBLE HOUSING

People with disabilities living in ACCESSIBLE HOUSING experience:

  • Less depression
  • Fewer injuries
  • Lower rates of mortality

As well as:

  • Greater independence
  • Higher self-confidence
  • More community participation

INACCESSIBLE HOUSING:

  • increases fall risk
  • contributes to poor health outcomes
  • Increases costs of healthcare
  • Increases nursing home institutionalization

Kentucky ranks among the states with the highest fall rates.

Unintentional falls cost healthcare providers $80 billion in 2020

What Do We Mean by Accessible Housing

Six squares include 3 pictures of people using wheelchairs and 3 quotes: Kaelin a black man looking out a window, Rachel, a white woman in her living room, and Garrison, a white man sitting in his living room. Kaelin says "it's like becoming a ninja to take a shower or do the dishes;" Rachel says "Disabled people are an afterthought - society doesn't think the need exists - but it does"; and Garrison says "As an abled person, I never thought about it much. As a paraplegic, I confront accessibility challenges daily."

Download the report for details on wheelchair accessibility

Gathering Strength’s report focuses on wheelchair accessibility because households with a wheelchair user are the most clearly defined and documented population for whom relatively established housing standards exist.

Accessible housing in our report includes:

One zero-step entry
An accessible kitchen
Adequate clearance at doorways and throughout
An accessible bathroom and bedroom at grade level

Disability is not evenly distributed

Disability in Louisville is not evenly distributed across the population.

The rate of physical disability is approximately 30% higher among Black residents than for the overall population.

Download the report for more data and graphs showing the intersection of disability, age, income, housing status, and race.

A bar graph entitled "Blakc Louisvillians Experience Higher Rates of Disability than Average" with multiple kinds of disabilities on the x-axis and 0 to 20 percent on the y-axis showing that a higher percentage of Black citizens have disabilities.
Disabilities breakdown by race.
A map of Louisville-Jefferson County, Kentucky entitled "Physical Disability Rates Range from 2.4% to 15.7% across Neighborhoods" with the neighborhoods color-coded based on the percentage of disability from 0% to 16% and the colors clearly show higher disability rates in West and South Louisville.
Physical disability by neighborhood

Disability, age, income, and race intersect geographically in Louisville, creating concentrated areas of housing and health inequity.

Disability rates vary widely across Louisville’s neighborhoods, from a low of 2.4% in the Highlands (East of Downtown) to a high of 15.7% in neighborhoods such as Chickasaw and Shawnee (West of Downtown)

As disability rates increase with age and are compounded by economic vulnerability, racial inequities, and geographic disparities, the need for affordable, accessible housing is not only substantial but unevenly distributed across the city.

Immediate Action is Needed to Increase Accessible Housing

1 Build more accessible housing

  • Raise minimum percentage of units required by building code
  • Update the building code to more current accessibility standards
  • Motivate the development of more housing and exceed accessibility requirements through funding incentives at the state and local levels
  •  

2 Make sure accessible units reach people who need them

  • Unit matching mechanisms in affordable multifamily housing to prioritize households that need them
  • Track whether accessible units are occupied by people with disabilities
  • Fund the development of accessible housing search tools

3 Fund modifications and incentivize the private market

  • Scale up home modification programs
  • Educate and incentivize private landlords/developers

4 Know what you have and track what you’re building

  • Link state and local funding and permitting databases to make unit counts publicly searchable
  • Improve national, state, and local disability data collection

 5 Include people with disabilities in the planning and decision-making

These are only a few of the policy, advocacy, and funding actions that can be taken immediately to reduce the accessible housing gap.  

Download the report to learn more about future areas of inquiry and policy action.

Acknowledgements

A logo of the Community Foundation of Louisville.

The accessible housing gap report was created through a collaboration with the Community Foundation of Louisville’s Data and Policy Center.

Logo for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Local Data for Equitable Communities project.

The accessible housing gap report was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation‘s Local Data for Equitable Communities grant.