Housing for People with Disabilities: A Review of State Olmstead and HUD Consolidated Plans

Although some scholars have discussed the serious shortage of appropriate housing for people with disabilities, planners and housing policy makers have been largely silent on this issue. We summarize the literature, to date, about the housing needs of people with disabilities in the United States. We investigate what progress states have made in addressing these needs since the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) by examining recent court-ordered state Olmstead plans and their U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Consolidated plans. We find that states are mostly aware of the size and housing needs of people with disabilities but have not yet developed sufficient programming.