The 25^th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act is getting deserved public attention. Still it’s worth mentioning that disabilities were added to the Fair Housing Act in 1988, two years before the ADA’s passage. That is, housing discrimination toward people with disabilities became illegal even before the rights of disabled people were established in employment and public accommodations.

As we mentioned in a previous post, of all the protected classes under the Fair Housing Act, disability is the leading source of discrimination complaints, both nationally and in Vermont.

People with disabilities are more likely to draw lower incomes. So hypothetically, it could be argued housing policies that adversely affect people with disabilities might have a disparate impact on poor people more generally.

Here are some Vermont numbers to chew on, from the Vermont Housing Data site:

Higher disability rates tend to be correlated with lower median incomes. For example, Chittenden County is on the high end for median family income, and Essex County, at the low end; and the they have the lowest and highest proportions of disabled people, respectively.