Disabled In Worcester Seek Visibility In Fight For Inclusionary Zoning

WORCESTER, MA — Steve Stolberg's full-time job at the Center for Living and Working involves finding housing for people with disabilities in the Worcester area.

But that type of housing is so scarce, Stolberg, who has spina bifida and uses a wheelchair, hasn't even been able to find himself an accessible unit. He's settled for a non-accessible apartment — one where he mostly can't use the stove or kitchen sink because there isn't room for his chair.

"I just kind of deal with it," he said.

Stolberg's situation is unfortunately common, and it's why he and a group of accessible housing advocates joined the fight to pass an inclusionary zoning (IZ) law in Worcester last year. The law would require a higher number of affordable apartments in new developments. There's also a proposal on the table to require that some of those affordable units be accessible for residents like Stolberg and his clients.

The Worcester City Council will vote Tuesday to adopt the IZ law, and it appears accessible housing advocates will get some help: District 1 Councilor Sean Rose — who leads a nonprofit that works with youth and adults with developmental disabilities — has sought to amend the policy to include a minimum number of accessible units.

But getting that amendment took work. The first version of the IZ ordinance presented to city councilors in May 2022 didn't even mention accessible units, and activists have been calling for it at public meetings for months. The accessibility piece was among a set of priorities outlined in September by groups aligned under the Worcester Together Affordable Housing Coalition (WTAHC).

"Our ask is to provide that link between affordability and accessibility," said Robert Bilotta, an accessible housing advocate who is part of WTAHC. Bilotta got an accessible unit in the new Voke Lofts building along Grove Street, but only after winning a housing lottery.

Gina Plata-Nino, co-chair of the WTAHC, said the wider IZ movement got its start during the pandemic when housing advocates were working on items like emergency shelter and eviction protections. That effort led to connections between a variety of groups in Worcester that wanted to change housing policy.

One early effort was pushing Worcester to set up an Affordable Housing Trust Fund (AHTF) using pandemic stimulus money. (Worcester's AHTF board last met on March 29, and heard a proposal from a developer seeking trust fund help to build six accessible units in a building along Jackson Street.)

"The first way we got together was the affordable housing trust fund," she said. "Then we said, 'What's the next step?'"

A group of accessibility advocates — they call themselves the Housing Committee at the Center for Living and Working — joined the effort. On top of the way apartments are physically built, the advocates say affordability is key for disabled residents due to factors like work status and healthcare costs.

Manny Guerra, a member of the Housing Committee, said he had to live in a nursing home for 2-1/2 years while waiting to find a home that could accommodate him. He eventually had to settle for a unit in Southbridge that's not even accessible.

The cost of staying in a nursing home is so high, it prevents people from saving up enough to move into apartments, the advocates said.

"There's either the streets or the hospital or a nursing home," Guerra said of the options faced by many disabled renters. That group also includes families with a disabled member who need two, three or more bedrooms with accessibility features — a rare find in Worcester.

State law requires any new building with more than 50 units to set aside 5 percent as accessible. But the law does not require the same when buildings built before 1991 are renovated, according to the group Accessible Massachusetts. That means, for example, renovated triple-deckers or old mills converted to loft apartments may not have any accessible units at all. The state law also doesn't mandate affordability in accessible units.

Advocate Steve Wage was facing eviction two years ago when a new owner bought the building he was living in. He was left scrambling to find housing, but also won a lottery to secure a unit in the new Grand Street Commons development in Main South.

For disabled people who don't win housing lotteries — 1,700 people applied for the 48 units in the Grand Street Commons — wait times for accessible units in Worcester Housing Authority (WHA) building top 30 years.

"As a state, we've fallen behind with accessible housing," he said. "It's a wait everywhere."

It's hard for people with disabilities to even search for accessible units. Stolberg said no one keeps track of that information. He doesn't even know how many are on the wait list for accessible WHA units.

Although accessibility advocates may get some help through Rose's amendment, the wider proposal WTAHC has been pushing may not pass the full city council. The group wants the ordinance to require some units in new buildings to be affordable for people earning 60% of the area median income. The proposal backed by city officials — the one most likely to pass Tuesday — does not contain that requirement, allowing developers to drop affordability only as low as 80% AMI.

That means accessible units could remain unaffordable for some renters who are disabled — but any movement to increase the number of units will help, the advocates said.

"The city is finally listening and including us. And that in itself is a good thing," Bilotta said.

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