Full Title: Number of housing units developed, repaired, or otherwise made available for low-income individuals, families or people with disabilities.
Definition of Key Terms
Housing unit: A single-family home (including a mobile home if permanently placed), an apartment, or a room in a group home for people with disabilities.
Developed: “Develop” means build new or substantially rehabilitate (the alterative to rehabilitation is that the unit was uninhabitable or soon would have become so). Involves replacing major systems such as the roof, the plumbing, the wiring, the foundation, or elevating the unit as required by a flood plain standard.
Repaired: “Repair” is a more modest level of physical work on the unit, such as weatherizing, painting, replacing appliances.
Can use dollar cut-off to distinguish “developed” from “repaired” (e.g., 30K/unit) or can distinguish by whether major systems are replaced. Dollar cut-off would require valuing volunteer labor, distinguishing between skilled trades and other workers.
Otherwise made available: Activities that make available through improved access a housing unit that is in the housing stock and likely to remain habitable. For example, assistance in searching for the unit, fair housing advocacy that induces the owner to rent to the target population, a rent subsidy that makes the unit affordable to the individual or family. Rent subsidies are comparatively straightforward to document. Harder to show that other activities were essential to making the unit available. Nonetheless, these are important AmeriCorps activities and should be captured either here or in a separate measure.
Individuals and families: same as census definition of “household.”
People with disabilities: Subset of individuals and families that meets a definition related to inability to live independently without support (could use HUD definition). Separate mention in this measure may not be needed, but could leave it in and count units for people with disabilities separately to acknowledge emphasis on this population.
Low-income: Must be receiving or meet the income eligibility requirements to receive: TANF, Food Stamps (SNAP), Medicaid, SCHIP, Section 8 housing assistance OR have a poor credit score OR are at least 60 days behind on one or more personal/family accounts.
How to Calculate Measure/Collect Data
Unduplicated count of Housing Units developed, repaired, or otherwise made available as defined here for low income individuals, families or persons with disabilities. This count indicates that the work has been completed to make the units available but they may or may not have been occupied.