The Housing Research & Advocacy Center published a new guide to assist people with mental disabilities. “Obtaining and Maintaining Housing: Fair Housing for People with Mental Health Disabilities” presents fair housing information and the additional protections for people with disabilities in an easy-to-use graphical format. This resource was designed and written by Mandy Mehlman, Fair Housing Community Educator, to be used by individuals, their caregivers, and family members to help them understand and exercise their fair housing rights. It includes a helpful directory of fair housing organizations and governmental offices.
In order to answer the most common questions raised by people with mental health disabilities, the 72-page manual offers many examples and covers topics such as reasonable accommodations and reasonable modifications in detail. The fair housing laws give special protections to people with disabilities.
Often people with mental health disabilities are not aware of their fair housing rights or how to enforce them. The majority of the calls that the Housing Center receives are from people with disabilities. To meet that need, the Housing Center was awarded a grant by the Ohio State Bar Foundation to expand its services to educate people with mental health disabilities. The result is this new manual.
Many people in the community face barriers to obtaining and maintaining housing. This manual and accompanying presentation serves as helpful tools for mental health consumers, caregivers, and social service and medical providers.