The European Commission has paid little attention to accessibility in the European Affordable Housing Plan. The lack of concrete measures to ensure affordability of accessible housing will compound the exclusion of over 100 million persons with disabilities.
This is all the more serious as persons with disabilities are disproportionately subject to poverty and social exclusion (28.7% for persons with disabilities versus 19.2% of the general population), and have a higher overburden of housing costs.
Inaccessible housing is a big contributor to this issue, with persons with disabilities reporting being ‘trapped at home’. It also leads to persons who have been living independently having to go back and live in segregated institutions.
The Forum has been proposing specific measures to address the lack of accessible housing and asked for a fund for accessibility in the new European plan on affordable housing.
We call on the European Commission to produce an addition to this plan, focused on disability-inclusion and accessibility:
- Concrete guidance and, where feasible, legislation on how to alleviate the shortage of accessible housing,
- including further detailing the new EU State-Aid rules that incorporate accessibility,
- compliance with accessibility requirements,
- and better access to financial services and accessible social housing programmes.
Gunta Anca, Vice-President of the European Disability Forum, said:
The exclusion of support for accessible housing means neglecting over 100 million persons with disabilities. The European Commission needs to present corrective measures as soon as possible.