When It Rains, It Pours: Compounding Housing Issues and Precarity Among Disabled Adults in the United States, 2019–2022

The multi-decade housing crisis has emerged as a critical aspect of both the ability of individuals to remain housed within the community as well as a critical health concern that impacts the long-term well-being through the presence or absence of both physical space and facilities in the home. We employ national state-level data from the American Community Survey (ACS) and aggregated measures from the Annual Disability Statistics Compendium to analyze six housing metrics—complete kitchen and plumbing access, overcrowding, housing cost burden, old housing, and poor housing. Using a lagged time-series regression analysis, we found the prevalence of cost burdened households in 2022 when accounting for individual and compounding housing metrics, and housing types, from 2019 to 2022, across community-living adults by disability status. Ultimately, we demonstrate that the carryover effects of housing issues is a greater contributor to housing cost burden than concurrent housing issues. This compounding and multi-faceted crisis further demonstrates that housing conditions and affordability need to be considered primary factors in the study and support of people with disabilities. Additionally, there is an urgent need for inclusive housing policies that address the challenges faced by disabled individuals to promote equitable access to sustainable, quality housing as a fundamental component of public health.