Barrier Free Living, Inc.

Barrier Free Living is dedicated to helping New Yorkers with disabilities live independently in the community. Our motto: "Helping People with Disabilities Help Themselves." National surveys have shown that the number one issue of women with disabilities is domestic abuse. View the United Spinal report here.

Barrier Free Living has taken a leadership role in educating services providers in the needs of People with DV and abuse.
Click here to take a look at our agency print newsletter, Breaking Barriers (bottom of page, links to issues) and also our E-Newsletter Breaking Barriers in Domestic Violence.

BFL has been working on the issue of affordable accessible housing for disabled New Yorkers since we began as an agency. We were aided by the Olstead Supreme Court decision of 1999, which affirmed the right of people with disabilities to live in their community. To read about Oldstead click here.

In NYC it was reported during the Bush era that there were 8000 people in nursing homes in NYC that did not want to be living there. Younger people with disabilities who are capable of independent living have been placed in nursing homes because they did not have opportunity to find affordable, accessible housing. The report "Priced out in 2010" showed that a person on SSI in NYC would need to pay 157 percent of his/her income for an average studio apartment.

The NY State Department of Health estimates that the average cost of a Medicaid funded nursing home bed is $128,000 per year. Over one billion dollars in tax payer money is being spent in NYC to keep people with disabilities in institutions. Since its inception the NY State Nursing Home Diversion program has placed approximately 30 people with disabilities in NYC in permanent housing. In the same period of time, BFL has placed 125 people with severe disabilities in permanent housing