Habitat World Online


Rhonda Bush and her daughter Caryn live in a Habitat house in Anchorage, Alaska. The house was built with a ramp and other amenities to accommodate Caryn's wheelchair.

Meeting Special Needs
Accessible Housing, Stability Improve Life for Families
by Rebekah Daniel

	What You Can Do: • Increase your understanding of accessibility challenges by borrowing or renting a wheelchair for a day. Can you get to work? Move around your house easily? Take note of the difficulties and campaign for accessibility. • The National Mental Health Association, NAMI (a national nonprofit mental health advocacy organization) and many local organizations offer information on mental health issues. Visit www.nmha.org, www.nami.org or check your phone book for local listings.

Damian Stefanski and Jacek Polewski, both Habitat homeowners, are neighbors in Gliwice, Poland. But they have more in common than simply homeownership; Stefanski and Polewski know first-hand the challenges of life in a wheelchair.

"Slowly but surely, high curbs are disappearing and the number of buildings adapted for people in wheelchairs is growing," Stefanski says. "Nevertheless, there are still new shops and offices being built with difficult access for a person in a wheelchair. Such a person has to cope not only with the architectural barriers, but also with social acceptance, not only in Gliwice, but also throughout Poland. Still people are quite ill at ease in the presence of such a person and do not understand him or her."

Loneliness, isolation, misunderstanding--the social and emotional struggles of people with special needs are no less real than their physical need for water faucets they can reach and doorways wide enough to roll through without scraping their knuckles. And while accessible and affordable housing can transform lives, Habitat for Humanity has learned through years of building houses that sometimes transformation takes more than a house.

Partnerships--relationships between organizations, homeowners, volunteers, community members and families--can bridge the gap, not only for people with physical challenges, but also for people affected by mental illness and long-term disease. Whether partners provide funding, building supplies or a listening, supportive ear to a homeowner after he or she moves in, the basic goal is simple: to help homeowners succeed.

For Polewski, as with many families in Poland, overcrowding was problematic. He, his wife Marzena and their daughter Dominika shared a 150-square-foot room in Marzena's parents' apartment. Dominika, 7, was born with cerebral palsy, and suffered from the cramped quarters. Worse, the flat was located on the second floor, the building had no elevator, and negotiating the stairs with a wheelchair was an ordeal.

The family selection committee had just approved the Polewski's application for a Habitat house when Adam Król, HFH Gliwice executive director, found out about a partnership between Habitat for Humanity and the Lions Clubs International Foundation. During the past several years, the LCIF partnership with Habitat has helped provide more than $12 million and 500 houses. HFH Gliwice applied for a grant, and between four local Lions Clubs and the LCIF, about 75 percent of the cost of the house was covered. Another grant from the Family Foundation of Jerzy and Ludgarda Buzek helped provide touch-sensitive electrical switches and wheelchair-friendly bathroom fixtures.

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