
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 24, 1990                   TAG: 9004240311
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

DISABLED RIP HOUSING RULES

A coalition of physically handicapped and home builders complained on Monday that proposed guidelines designed to guarantee disabled people access to apartments would price many of them out of the market.

However, those assertions were promptly denied by the government and another group representing the disabled.

The guidelines were described as "impractical, inflexible and too costly" in an analysis by the Task Force on Handicap Accessibility formed by the National Coordinating Council on Spinal Cord Injury and the National Association of Home Builders.

Gordon Mansfield, assistant secretary of Housing and Urban Development, questioned the task force figures.

"We are very concerned that we meet the intent of the law and make sure that [Secretary] Jack Kemp's priority on affordability on housing be paid attention to," Mansfield said.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is required by the 1988 Fair Housing Amendments to issue guidelines insuring disabled persons have easy access to new multifamily units first occupied after next March 13.

They affect such things as door hallway widths, bathroom and walk-in pantry sizes and grading and ramping of steeply sloped sites.

But the task force study said draft guidelines "go far beyond the original intent of the Fair Housing legislation."

Unless modified, it said, costs of building rental apartments and condominium and cooperative units "will increase significantly, further slowing an already depressed multifamily industry and exacerbating the affordability crisis currently confronting millions of low- and moderate-income households."

"We estimate that the cost per unit of meeting HUD's proposed guidelines will range from $1,300 to $3,700 for walk-up units and from $3,200 to $4,250 for mid- to high-rise units," R. Jack Powell, president of the spinal cord injury council and executive director of the Paralyzed Veterans of America, told a news conference.

Since the added costs would be added to rents, it would mean monthly increases of $13 to $37 for walk-up units and of $32 to $43 for mid- or high-rise units, the coalition's study contended.

The coalition said its proposed guidelines would mean increases of between $7 and $26 for walk-up units and $14 to $23 for mid- or high-rise apartments.

"If HUD's design guidelines result in significant increases in the cost of housing, they we have really defeated the purpose of the Fair Housing Amendments . . . and created another barrier to accessibilty," Powell said.

by CNB