CW: Homelessness
A disabled veteran from Boston slept outdoors in the rain recently — not because he lacked shelter but simply because the elevator in his apartment building broke. Stevie Wheels, who moved into the Ruth Lillian Barkley Apartments in Boston’s South End a couple of months ago, says the elevator has already been broken four times.
He is in his late 60s, a double amputee, and uses a power wheelchair. Living on the sixth floor with an unreliable elevator, he says, feels like being trapped in a “death trap.” What if there was a fire, and he couldn’t get out?
So when he discovered the elevator was broken again on Wednesday, he made a decision no one should ever have to make. He went down six flights of stairs on his bottom, dragging his backup manual wheelchair with him, and arrived at South Station — a place he is familiar with, having spent years without stable housing. He slept outside because, he says, he felt safer there than in the building.
It’s a heartbreaking reality for Stevie, but it is not an anomaly. It is a snapshot of a national crisis. Across the country, disabled people and older adults are trapped in their own homes because the buildings that are “accessible” can only be accessed once each element of infrastructure is operating well — and more often than not, it doesn’t. Elevators fail, ramps deteriorate, and automatic doors stop working. Repairs take far too long.
And the people who rely most on these accessibility features are the most impacted when they break down. What’s even more serious, is that the U.S. has a massive shortage of accessible housing. Apartment List analyzed data from the American Community Survey and the American Housing Survey in February 2020 and found that only 9% of households with a disabled member live in an accessible home. Only 6% of homes in the United States are fully accessible today. But over 15 percent of households have a physically disabled member.
The reality is stark: Millions of disabled Americans are looking for housing that provides even the most basic form of accessibility. Even if someone can find an accessible apartment, that person’s safety remains contingent on how well the building itself is maintained — whether the elevator works, whether the entrance is barrier-free, and whether the infrastructure is sound. Too often, it isn’t.
When access is difficult or impossible, disabled residents lose their freedom. A broken elevator can leave someone housebound, which means that a health crisis can worsen due to a missed medical appointment. A power outage can be a matter of life and death. People can’t get groceries or medication.
Some people are physically injured dragging themselves up or down stairs. Others just wait, isolated and terrified. They must wait for someone to fix an elevator that should never have failed in the first place. This is not just an inconvenience. It is a violation of basic human rights.
And it is a predictable outcome of a housing system that considers accessibility optional and disabled people expendable. It is a result of decades of underinvestment, neglect, and the dangerous assumption that “good enough” is good enough for people to survive.
No one — not a veteran, not an older adult, nor a disabled person — should ever have to decide whether to stay inside or sleep outside in the rain. Housing is not truly accessible if it is not safe to enter or exit. Accessibility is not a luxury. It is essential.
Sources:
Konish, Lorie. “Less than 5% of U.S. Housing Supply Is Accessible to Older, Disabled Americans. These Changes May Help.” CNBC, 21 July 2023, https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/21/less-than-5percent-of-housing-is-accessible-to-older-disabled-americans.html.
Smith, Meghan. “His Public Housing Building’s Elevator Was Broken, So a Disabled Veteran Slept Outside.” GBH News, 29 May 2026, https://www.wgbh.org/news/housing/2026-05-29/his-public-housing-buildings-elevator-was-broken-so-a-disabled-veteran-slept-outside.
Warnock, Rob. “How Accessible Is the Housing Market?” Apartment List, 19 Feb. 2020, http://www.apartmentlist.com/research/how-accessible-is-the-housing-market.