Stay tuned to discover seven websites that will help you buy and modify an accessible home for the disability community. Welcome to AI Home Podcast, the first podcast for real estate resources and independent living strategies for the disability community. Why? Because accessibility is home. Hi, I'm Angel Fox, blogger, author, and your host. Please stay tuned to the very end to learn about my free handouts and more importantly how answering the call to action I will give you at the end, can well lower the kitchen sinks, but raise the bars for disability home ownership. Now, let's begin! I am really excited to talk about seven fabulous websites that I've discovered that can help you either buy a home that could be already accessible or modify a home that you currently have to be accessible for the disability community. Now before I go into the seven websites, I wanna quickly kind of address maybe the elephant in the room. I've talked a lot about this in my other episodes and my blog and that is what is disability home ownership? For this purpose, and everybody can have a different definition, but the disability forward, thought about disability home ownership is that it's not just, low income or moderate income rental housing? Well, that certainly can be, and I will talk at the very end, a fabulous website that can help people find affordable housing. Because I like to think of everybody is capable of owning a home regardless of their economic income. It's just where you start. Disability home ownership is also more than just aging in place, although it certainly does include that. It's more than just senior citizens who may have some medical condition. Disability home ownership is making sure that a home can be fully accessible, whether you are disabled or not right now. We generally tend to think of that as universal housing or living-in-Place and it could be all inclusive. It could be regarding those who actually live in the home, those who own the home, or those who can visit the home. So that's what disability home ownership for the purpose of today and also is considered very disability forward. With that in mind, I'm gonna talk about the seven websites and how these websites can help you buy or modify a home that may go beyond your understanding of disability home ownership, which is not group homes or strictly aging in place. But I wanna talk about buying a home. How do you buy a home that is fully accessible or has some accessible features? There are two particular websites, but the reason why I'm starting with buying is not just because I'm assuming you are going to buy a home. Chances are if you're listening to this, you may already have a home. Why is that? Because 95% to 97% depending on one statistic you are using, individuals become disabled after the 27th birthday. As a result of that stat, more likely you are a person who has a home most of your adult life, if not being a senior citizen, not being disabled, chances for the home you bought may not have any accessible features. It also may not be easily or financially makes sense to do all the construction for the type of home you have. For example, a townhouse, which is three levels, may not make any to try to make it fully accessible. So that's why I wanna talk about buying a home is because more than likely you may need to sell the home you have and then buy a home that is more easily modified. So let's begin with the two websites. The first website is called accessible properties.net accessible properties.net. That's plural for properties. I really like this website simply because it has not just houses that have accessibility features to it. It also has a list of real estate agents that have put themselves out there that has said, I have experience and I am willing to help an individual sell or buy a accessible home. If you ever read my book, I have a whole chapter about how my experience with realtor for buying my own home was not necessarily very open-minded individuals. Having a list of real estate agents that are on that particular website, accessibility properties.com, is really great to have. It's also has a link to a magazine that has just general information about disability. One thing I will have to mention that while those real estate agents are in fact listed, some of that information is dated, the listing of accessible homes are not. My other website that I wanna talk about, which is actually my favorite, is called, barrier free home.com and that also has listings. It's really considered more of classifies rather than listing and what is the difference? I do talk about this in another episode but it means that anybody can post a home for sale. So that means you're not going to get necessarily a real estate agent that will go through the normal process or making sure all the information is there. Now, the benefit of classified, so let me back up. I would just say buyer beware as far as the information being listed at barrier free home.com because anybody can list it. However, having a classified is not all bad because a homeowner can actually list his or her house for free. Those are the two particular websites that if you're looking to buy a home that has some accessible features, you should do that. Now, you're not going to find as many listings on Zillow or Redfin or any of those other. Why? Is because unfortunately, when it comes to the private sector housing, new homes that are being developed, or even modified that already exist, do not underneath the Fair Housing Act amendment have to be built accessible. Yeah I know, let that sink in. What you may be familiar with if you are in the housing industry, is the guidelines for HUD,which is the Housing Urban and Development Agency or the ADA guidelines, the America's with disability guidelines. Those are required for very specific reasons. The HUD guidelines are for rental property and also subsidized housing for low income or moderate income. Local, state or federal government is providing money to the housing developer or to the homeowner and as a result, then there are some accessible features and guidelines underneath HUD that must be followed. But for whatever reason the house or the housing division is open to the public, like there's a business, that's when the ADA guidelines, the Americans with Disability Act guidelines kick in. And that is for primarily businesses because those are entities that are open up for the public. When you go to Redfin or Zillow websites to look for homes that are accessible and there's not a lot listed. That's why, because the reality is most homes in the private sector are not accessible. So let's say you bought that home and it doesn't have all the accessible features you need, or you decide that it's still feasible for the home you do have, to modify it. Where do you go? So I have a couple websites for you and they each have a little bit different focus, but I certainly encourage you to review all of it, to meet your needs. The very first website that I think you should start is called home mods.org org. H O M E M O D S. It was a particular project done by the University of Southern California, and it was a project that was also in part supported by a non-profit organization called Fall Prevention Center of Excellence. Home mods.org, I highly encourage you to visit because it's all about what is home modification. That might sound like a silly question, like what are home modification? But I promise you, if you Google home modification, you'll go get all kinds of interior design information. You're not going to necessarily give something that specific for the disability community. Again, if you're new to the disability community, you may not even know what are some good examples of home modifications, and that's perfectly acceptable. And so Home mods.org both gives you a definition and give you examples. So I definitely encourage you to go ahead and visit that particular website, Home mods.org.Also on that website there is a Home Safety Self-Assessment tool and worksheet, and it's from a very specific perspective, and that is to help you assess your own home that you currently have as to preventing falls.. Because again, the fall prevention center of excellence nonprofit organization is really focused on aging in place and independent living for all ages, but mainly for senior citizens. The second website is called the Home Usability Program the actual address usable home.ri.umt.edu. As you can guess, it's also supported by two universities. Why really enjoy about the home usability program? It takes a very holistic approach and it helps you understand how you can, uh, modify your home, that will meet your preferences needs and ability for the home. Meaning making sure your home is actually usable not just for you, but for your family that may be living there and those who may be visiting as well. The reason why I like this approach of making home usability is frankly, when you talking about home modifications or if you're talking about aging in place that has a weight, right? Especially if you new to this idea, it seems like that's gonna be very costly. You may feel like all of it may not apply to you. Also by focusing on making the home usable, well, everybody wants a home to be usable. We all survived the covid and we really became aware about living, working, and maybe even educating your children in the home. Making your home functionally usable for every day and every stage of your life, it's really important. I think we all the world realize that your home really needs to be usable. So having this project, which actually was created 2015 way earlier than Covid, is really a good approach to kind of wrap your head around it. But spoiler alert, a lot of information that they provide in the usability home project, is things that you will talk about in the disability community for accessible housing and aging in place. There's nothing new or different. It's just helping people kind of wrap their heads around it and not make it bigger than what it really is. So I really encourage you to visit Home Usability Program. They also do have their own worksheet to kind of walk you through that as well. So please check that out. The next website is the Kelsey Foundation and the website is the kelsey.org. The KELSEY.org and is a wonderful nonprofit organization out in California. They primarily focus on low and moderate income housing. But they have created a fabulous manual. It's like a hundred pages. It can be a little overwhelming and the manual is called the Kelsey Housing Standards for Accessibility and Inclusion. There's only two main guidelines on making home accessible. You have the HUD for subsidized housing or rental properties, or you have the ADA guidelines for things that are open up to the public, like businesses. Outside of that, there is nothing out there, particularly for the private sector housing. While that can be disheartening, it also provides an opportunity. Meaning, you can do whatever you want for your private sector housing. The only caveat I will tell you is you need to be mindful of your county code and usually codes might be related to a particular ramp or a few other things, but primarily you could do whatever you want. The Kelsey foundation reached out and they want to say lets reinvent what are the standards should it be? Because to be honest, the HUD, the Fair Housing Act and the ADA guidelines are the bare minimals. So let's do disability forward thinking, and they collaborate with all your housing developers, real estate agents, all kinds of people and they really broke down not only room by room of what accessible features you should have, but they also really expanded on making it really inclusive for all disabilities. I will be perfectly honest in a lot of the information that's out there as far as the guidelines that are required really do focus on just entry, safely getting into the home. So if you have just a mobility impairment or senior citizens, it doesn't include individuals who have autism, who are, might have, who are blind or who are deaf. And so the Kelsey Foundation also provide, here are things that you might wanna include room by room for five or six different type of disabilities that really does kinda of include almost all the spectrum of disabilities. So I do highly encourage you to take a look at it. It's free, you can download it. It is quite overwhelming. It's also a great manual for you to give to your contractor or your architect. They may be a little taken back because they, the contractor or the architect, whoever you may be working with, may only have the framework of what's required by your county's code and those two general guidelines of either HUD or the ADA. You might have to remind them that outside of the code, you can, because, you'll not be subsidized by any government entity and you're not open a business, you can actually incorporate all those things that is placed in the Kelsey manual. The next website that I think you should check out is called the Housing and Services Resource Center. It's led by the Department of Healthy Human Services and HUD to federal agencies and the individuals that help monitor and organize the website is by the administration community living The website is acl.gov/housing and services, A C l A as in apple, C as in cat, L as in lucky.gov/housing and services. This is really a historical website and why I call it historical well, for years, if not decades, the disability community and even the housing industry has said, you know what, there's been a law changes, there's a lot of misinformation, a lot of confusion about accessible housing and can there be a resource center, particularly between HHS and HUD? Why? Well, because you know, HUD is in charge of housing and HHS focuses on health and those two things really need to come hand to hand. While there was certainly previous task force and some collaboration, there wasn't a central website that would, allow those two agencies to come together, as well as provide networking and resources for people who may be contractor, housing developers, anything along that nature. I will tell you the only caveat is, is because it is, collaboration between two federal government agencies, the focus will be primarily on low and and moderate income housing. But that doesn't mean that it's not gonna be a very valuable resource, I highly encourage you to visit that. I truly believe that everybody, regardless of thier economic status today, doesn't mean that's going to be what the economic status tomorrow or a year from today. Because of that, I always like to consider everybody as potential disabled homeowners, and everybody as being somebody who's trying to transition into becoming a homeowner. And so with that in mind, there's another website that wanna bring to your attention it to help you find subsidized housing. It is called affordable housing online.com. Affordable housing online.com. And so please check out that website. I also wanna talk about another resource. It's not a website, it is however, my book called My Blue Front Door. My blue front door book is available on Amazon or on my website, horizontal houses.com. This is a book that actually started, the whole thing started. It predates this podcast. It's a book that basically talks about my experience as a wheelchair user and trying to buy my very first home during the recession at the very end of the housing market. It goes more beyond basic information, like some of the websites I provided. It gives you my experience, particularly how do you pick and talk to a real estate agent. because most of them are not gonna be familiar with accessible housing or have a very limited focus. So I talk about how you select and work with your real estate agent, how you work with and select a contractor to modify your home, as well as how to fundraise and just a general, like this is what I did and yes, it can be done. Because at the end of the day, I don't know about you. It's really good to hear from somebody that may be in a very similar situation and hear thier story. Now, I always like to end with a call to action because we can't change everything just by ourselves. And so today's call of action is that if you are a person who is disabled and you have your own home, please reach out to me and tell me what your experiences. I would love to have you on this podcast, if you will, estate agent and you have experience in this particular field, please also reach out to me. After listening today, disability home ownership is that much closer. Whether you are a wheelchair user or a worker in the housing industry. But there's so much more I could provide you through horizontal houses.com. Horizontal houses.com is the hub for all things related to disability home ownership. You will find my blog, this podcast, my book, and how my consulting services can help real estate agents or healthy developers market and tap into the largest minority group the disability. All of which come from real world experience as a working class lifetime. Paraplegic who bought her first home during the Great Recession and successfully modified it, please help me continue this exploration of disability home ownership by connecting through my Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram pinster accounts by either searching for horizontal houses on these platforms. Or visit directly at the horizontalhouses.com website. Most importantly though, please subscribe to the email distribution list located on the website so you don't miss out on any updates I may have. Remember sharing our collective experiences will allow us each to lower the kitchen sink, but raise the bar for disability home ownership. Thank you.