Tiya Berry
Pronouns: she/her
Research Mentor(s): Kaci Pellar
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Detroit Disability Power / NonUM
Program:
Authors: Tiya Berry, Peyton Ng, Kaci Pellar
Session: Session 7: 4:40 pm – 5:30 pm
Poster: 1
Abstract
Detroit’s accessible housing stock is not adequate and numbered enough to accommodate its disabled residents, who make up 19% of the city’s population. Attached to current gentrification problems displacing its current residents, the sheer inaccessibility residents face surmounts the inadequate resources Detroit offers. As a means to address that issue, Detroit Disability Power, a non-profit that works to implement disability justice throughout the city, partnered up with the Kelsey to produce a series of facilitated sessions that increase exposure to best practices in accessible housing among its stakeholders. This class of stakeholders included housing advocates, developers, and property managers. These sessions depended on the following properties: a literature review of past accessibility policies implemented in the U.S., as well as recommended ones, and an exploration of existing tools that introduce residents to affordable and accessible housing. The literature review explores relevant legislation and past research from various organizations, most notably being that of MAX Housing. The tool exploration sought to analyze the current offerings of website databases that match a given city’s residents to affordable and accessible housing. Through this analysis, a final set of recommendations was formed for the city of Detroit’s own program of a similar nature and the stakeholders’ knowledge in the sessions. A final compilation of the above findings will be presented for the purpose of evaluations. The implications of this research will target future understandings of Detroit’s housing landscape, given the anticipation of the stakeholders gaining newfound knowledge, which will eventually start increasing the accessibility of Detroit homes.
