Abstract:

The National Affordable Housing Act of 1990 created the Section 811 program, a grants scheme for housing designed for the elderly with disabilities. The major goals of this evaluation are to assess the programs' effectiveness in providing housing for persons with disabilities and to examine the impacts of Section 162 and Section 811 changes on the delivery of this housing. The assessment involved in-depth mail and telephone interviews with project sponsors, managers, and tenants plus site visits and an intensive analysis of 30 projects. Some of the key conclusions include: residents of many recently built group homes require environments that offer extensive supportive services; demand for housing in Sections 202, 162 and 811 for persons with disabilities is strong; most of the residences produced under these programs provide long-term or permanent rather than short-term housing; sections 162/811 projects typically take over 3 years to complete. In contrast, efforts to develop supportive housing in North Carolina have been highly successful and efficient and could serve as a model for other parts of the country; sponsors of projects would like greater flexibility in the sizes and types of housing provided.