Where are disabled individuals living? "With aging parents; in nursing homes, which is not appropriate, but they have no choice," Kerr said. "Or on the street."
Last week, the Philadelphia Fed sponsored a meeting to address the problem.
"People with severe physical disabilities are often low- or moderate-income," said Dede Myers, Philadelphia Fed's vice president and community-affairs officer.
Federal data show that people with disabilities who rely on Supplemental Security Income as their sole source of income continue to be the nation's poorest citizens. In 2008, annual income of a single individual receiving SSI payments was $8,016 - equal to 18.6 percent of the national median income for a one-person household and 23 percent below the 2008 federal poverty level of $10,400.
Myers said the Fed event was designed to bring lenders, community-development financial institutions and development organizations, and government agencies together to discuss the challenges they face and to look at options to overcome them.
Financing for affordable housing is primarily federal - grants or low-income tax credits - and the competition for an ever-contracting supply of money is intense.
Kerr said Inglis recently applied for a federal grant to build 61 units of affordable housing for people 55 and older with disabilities.
"There were 84 applicants statewide, 29 in the Philadelphia region, and just four awards available," he said.
The rent Inglis receives "can't begin to cover the expenses of building" without these grants and tax credits, Kerr said. A typical renter pays $75 a month; with a Section 8 voucher from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the total amount reaches $600.
