Parents with Disabilities are More Likely to Rent and Suffer Housing Cost Burdens

By Raquel Harati, NLIHC Research Analyst  

New research published in Housing and Society titled, “Housing stability for disabled parents in the United States: Estimates from the American Community Survey,” examines housing tenure (renting vs owning) and housing cost burdens for parents with disabilities compared to other adult groups. The authors find that parents with disabilities are more likely to be housing cost-burdened, paying more than 30% of their income in housing costs, compared to both nonparents with or without disabilities, and parents without disabilities. Additionally, parents with disabilities are the most likely to be renters among these different subgroups of adults. Disparities persist, although become less prominent, after adjusting for numerous social and demographic factors including poverty status and disability type. The authors argue that housing disparities for parents with disabilities are a product of inadequate national housing policies that fail to account for the needs of parents with disabilities. 

Prior national research has demonstrated persistent housing stability and affordability challenges for adults with disabilities, but little has been explored about the housing circumstances of adults with disabilities who are also parents. Given the importance of housing stability in parent and child wellbeing and the disproportionate rates that parents with disabilities are referring to the child welfare system, the authors felt this connection needed further exploration. To conduct their research, the authors used 2017-2022 American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year data and excluded records based on individuals being under the age of 18 and living in group quarters, which gave a final sample of roughly 11.7 million individuals in households across the United States. From there, the sample was divided into four subgroups: nondisabled nonparents, nondisabled parents, disabled nonparents, and disabled parents. Disability status was measured by a yes response to any of the six ACS disability questions regarding hearing, vision, cognitive, physical/ambulatory, self-care, and independent living abilities. Parental status was defined by adults living with a minor in the household and their presumed responsibility over those minors. Additional potential factors were explored and adjusted for including but not limited to race/ethnicity, age, sex, receiving social program assistance, urban vs rural location, and poverty status.    

Parents with disabilities were more likely to rent rather than own their home compared to the other groups. More specifically, 47% of parents with disabilities rented compared to 39% of nonparents with disabilities, 37% of nonparents without disabilities, and 36% of parents without disabilities. These differences between groups remained after controlling additional socioeconomic factors. Among disability subtypes, those with cognitive disabilities were the most likely to be renters (53%), while those with hearing disabilities were the least likely to be renters (37%). Parents with disabilities were also more likely to only have one child than parents without disabilities, 51% vs 42%, respectively.  

Parents with disabilities were found to experience housing cost burdens at a higher rate (46%) compared to parents without disabilities (30%), nonparents with disabilities (41%), and nonparents without disabilities (29%). Even after adjusting for various socioeconomic factors, parents with disabilities remained significantly more likely to be spending more than 30% of their income on housing costs. Housing cost burden disparities also varied by disability type with the highest rates among parents with self-care (53%) and independent living (53%) disabilities, while parents with hearing disabilities had the lowest rates (36%). These disparities remained even after controlling other socioeconomic factors. 

Overall, these findings suggest that parents with disabilities have a disproportionate need for affordable housing. Affordable housing policies and programs should consider the unique needs of parents with disabilities. The authors also highlight potential areas for future research about parents with disabilities that could meaningfully expand upon this study. These areas include analyzing the compounding effects that racial and ethnic minorities at this intersection face, interviewing parents with disabilities about their direct experiences, and investigating differences between parents with disabilities living in private market and publicly assisted housing units.  

The full article can be found here.