Home | About CHANCE | Publications and Resources | Barriers | Section 8 Homeownership Program | Relevant Policy Issues | Foundation Search | Translation of CHANCE Website and Text to Other Languages | List of Collaborators | Home of Your Own Guide | Links | Search CHANCE Website | Contact Information | Click here to Join The Housing & Disability Issues Mailing List

The Center for Housing and New Community Economics (CHANCE) was established in March of 2001. CHANCE's mission is to improve and increase access to integrated, affordable, and accessible housing coordinated with, but separate from, personal assistance and supportive services. CHANCE's purpose will be to offer alternatives to approaches that segregate, congregate, and control people with disabilities. The IOD will work in partnership with ADAPT in all aspects of the Center. ADAPT is a national organization that focuses on promoting services in the community for people with disabilities.

The development of community housing and services for people with disabilities has been a major national policy direction for the past 20 years. Unfortunately, the administrative structures supporting community services typically promote congregate and agency controlled approaches to housing and personal assistance services. While the number of people living in institutions and large facilities has decreased, the vast majority of individuals residing "in the community" live in residences owned and controlled by someone else. Housing and personal assistance services are dictated far more often by government and agency preferences than by the needs and desires of persons with disabilities. Current approaches have not assured that people with disabilities are afforded control over, or even a voice in, the most basic decisions regarding where they live, with whom they live, the nature of the assistance they receive, and how they spend their time.

ADAPT and the IOD intend to collaborate with a broad coalition of people and organizations concerned with housing, economics, personal assistance services, and advocacy. The coalition will include people with disabilities and their families, as well as people from federal, state, and local agencies. Collaboration between the private and public sectors will be encouraged and facilitated.

1. Project Access is a national initiative designed to assist people with disabilities to move from nursing homes into the community. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have established a partnership to implement this initiative. HUD will provide Section 8 vouchers. Using both Nursing Home Transition Grants and Medicaid waivers, HHS will work with state Medicaid offices to provide personal assistance services. HUD is contracting ABT Associates, Inc. to provide technical assistance to implement Project Access. ABT is an international company that provides program evaluation, policy analysis, technical assistance, and program operation services. ABT will subcontract with CHANCE to work in the eleven states scheduled to receive HUD vouchers. The work will be carried out from September 2001 through August 2003.
2. The Community Living Exchange Collaborative is a three-year grant funded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), to provide technical assistance with issues relating to system change. On September 28, 2001, CMS awarded approximately $64 million in grants to 37 states and one territory for "Systems Changes for Community Living." In partnership with their disability and aging communities, grantees receiving the awards will design and implement improvements in community long-term support systems. The "Systems Changes for Community Living" funds are awarded in four categories, including grants for: (1) Real Choice Systems Change, (2) Community-Integrated Personal Assistance Services and Supports, (3) Nursing Facility Transitions, and (4) a National Technical Assistance Exchange for Community Living.

The Collaborative Exchange Grant was jointly awarded to The Independent Living Research Utilization (ILRU) in Texas and The Rutgers Center for State Health Policy in New Jersey. CHANCE will partner with ILRU to manage its activities on the Exchange Collaborative, with a major focus on working with states and other groups to implement Nursing Facility Transition grants. CHANCE will also work with grantees and others on systems change as it relates to transition and housing issues.

3. Strategies, Barriers, and Outcomes of Home Ownership for People with Severe Disabilities is a three-year field initiated research project funded in August of 2000 by the National Institute on Disability Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR). This research project is systematically investigating the quality of life outcomes of home ownership for people with severe disabilities. The research will focus on the personal service, financial, and support network variables associated with achieving and maintaining successful home ownership.

Five interrelated studies are being conducted in Arkansas, Connecticut, Missouri, Texas, Washington, and West Virginia. The studies include: (1) a homeownership outcome study consisting of 150 in-person structured interviews. This study will be conducted in collaboration with the Temple University Institute on Disabilities; (2) a study of facilitating and inhibiting factors in homeownership. This study, based on telephone interviews with 450 individuals, will be conducted in collaboration with the UNH Center for Survey Research; (3) an investigation of the predictors of mortgage company underwriting decisions. Research data will be collected using an experimental design with a random sample of banking system underwriters; (4) an intensive case study of selected homeowners, based on site visits to six homeowners. Research methodology includes the use of qualitative participant-observation, semi-structured interview methods, and analyses; and, (5) a follow-along study of the variables associated with long-term success by successful homeowners.

4. The National Home of Your Own Alliance Clearinghouse. In 1993, through a five-year cooperative agreement with the Institute on Disability (IOD), the Administration on Developmental Disabilities (ADD) created a technical assistance center, the National Home of Your Own Alliance (Alliance). The rationale for promoting homeownership was based on the belief that non-traditional income streams and federal, state, and local subsidies could be structured and blended to support homeownership for people historically excluded from the housing market. Since 1998, the IOD has continued to maintain the national clearinghouse through an updated website, a toll-free information and referral line, and responses to requests for information and publications through electronic and non-electronic mail.

• ensure that people with disabilities are afforded the opportunity to direct all aspects of their lives, including where they live, how they receive their services and supports, and planning for their economic well being;
• reject mandatory links of housing and personal assistance;
• improve access to integrated, affordable, and accessible housing coordinated with, but separate from, personal assistance and supportive services;
• work toward and advocate for systems change at the local, state, and federal levels and the collaboration of the public and private sectors;
• encourage the collaboration of the public and private sectors; and
• offer progressive alternatives to approaches that segregate, congregate, and control people with disabilities.