The Hidden Housing Crisis: Worst Case Housing Needs Among Adults with Disabilities

This report outlines a study that used data about households with severe rent burdens from the 2005 American Community Survey (ACS) to develop more accurate estimates of ‘worst case' housing needs among households containing non-elderly adult renters with disabilities. Worst case needs, a concept intended to measure renters with acute needs for housing assistance, are unassisted renters with incomes below half of their area’s median income who pay more than half of their income for housing or live in severely substandard housing. The study found that an estimated 2.1 - 2.4 million of the 6 million households in the U.S. with worst case housing needs are non-elderly disabled households. (2008)