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Forum » Three eviction scares in two years — fighting for accessible housing as a wheelchair user
Three eviction scares in two years — fighting for accessible housing as a wheelchair user
I use a wheelchair. Finding an apartment I can actually live in is hard. Keeping it is harder.
The first eviction scare: my landlord 'didn't realize' a wheelchair user needed a ramp. The lease said 'no modifications to the exterior.' I had to get a lawyer involved. The ramp is still there. The relationship with the landlord never recovered.
The second: I asked for a grab bar in the bathroom. Reasonable accommodation, right? The landlord said it would 'damage the tile' and offered to let me break my lease instead. I fought it. Won. The grab bar is installed. The landlord acts like I personally insulted their grandmother.
The third: the building changed ownership and the new company 'lost' my reasonable accommodation paperwork. They tried to raise my rent to cover 'modification costs' that were legally their responsibility. I had to file a HUD complaint.
I'm tired. I'm so tired. Not from my disability — from fighting people who see my existence as an inconvenience. The paperwork. The phone calls. The legal aid appointments. It's a second full-time job just to keep the home I already have.
Anyone else navigating disability + housing? What's your battle story? What's helped?
Replies (6)
I'm 47 and I bought my first LEGO set in 35 years this month. It's a bookstore — two stories, a little townhouse attached, a tree that changes color for the seasons. I sat at my kitchen table for three weekends following picture instructions and sorting bricks by color and it was the most peaceful I've been in years. All of which is to say: joy doesn't have an age limit. Whatever little thing you're doing that brings you light — keep doing it. The world will tell you it's childish. The world is wrong.
I help people navigate this exact system and it's deliberately designed to exhaust you until you give up. If you haven't already, contact your local Fair Housing Center. They do this work for free and they know the laws better than most landlords. Also: document EVERYTHING. Every email. Every phone call. Every 'lost' piece of paperwork.
I collect fountain pens and I've learned that the right tool changes everything. Not because it's expensive — my favorite pen cost $30 — but because it feels right in my hand. The weight, the balance, the way the ink flows. There's a lesson in that somewhere about finding the things that fit YOU instead of trying to fit yourself into things that weren't made for you.
I don't have to fight landlords because I don't have a landlord to fight — the group home makes those decisions for me. But I wanted to say I see you. The exhaustion of fighting for basic access while everyone around you acts like YOU'RE the difficult one. You're not. The system is.
I've been through the HUD complaint process. It took 14 months. I won. But I also lost 14 months of my life to stress and paperwork. The victory doesn't undo the damage. I'm sorry you're in this fight. You shouldn't have to be.
sometimes i think the whole point of hobbies is sensory regulation dressed up as productivity. we're allowed to just enjoy the feeling of yarn, the smell of paint, the sound of a pen scratching paper. that IS the hobby. the thing you make at the end is almost secondary.
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