Advancing Disability-Forward Housing, Together

The Kelsey provides technical assistance and project management for organizations across all stages of their disability-forward housing efforts. Whether structuring community engagement, doing site feasibility, selecting a development partner, overseeing a housing project launch, managing design partners, and beyond, we support people with a vision for inclusive housing to bring projects to life. Past clients include affordable housing developers, disability service providers, universities, housing finance organizations, and family groups. The Kelsey has supported 14 technical assistance projects across 9 states to date. We provide capacity at the intersection of housing and disability to support the development of inclusive, affordable, and accessible housing.  Most of our Technical Assistance projects are grant-funded  and we partner with our clients to help secure support for this work.

Contact us to explore your own capacity building needs.

Our open-source, free resources support organizations in their own efforts to build inclusive housing. Resources include toolkits for community outreach, technical guidance on financing and project development, design guidelines, strategies for increasing disabled leadership, and beyond. Office Hours gather housers at all stages of development to learn more and ask questions about their own housing efforts. For organizations further in development, we host the Inclusive Houser Network, where organizations building integrated communities share best-practices, explore challenges, and create joint policy agendas.

Many of our resources can be found in our Learn Center where you can find practical step-by-step guidance to developing community-led housing efforts, Plain Language leasing and management templates for property managers, case studies from The Kelsey’s learnings, and accessible guides to complex topics in finance, policy, and housing development.

If there is a new resource you’re looking for, contact us!

We co-develop inclusive housing in partnership with local providers and housing developers. The Kelsey brings our expertise in disability-forward housing affordability, accessibility, and inclusivity to best-in-class local teams who know their communities and have a track record of housing delivery. Partners include affordable housing and market-rate developers. See our housing pipeline here or contact us for co-development opportunities.

The Inclusive Design Standards define a set of multifamily housing design and operations strategies. Co-created by advocates, developers, and architects, the elements support cross-disability accessibility and link disability-forward design choices to intersectional benefits around affordability, sustainability, racial equity, and safety. Development teams can use the Inclusive Design Standards to plan and design their projects, then self-certify their communities on their level of access and inclusion. Access the Inclusive Design Standards and accompanying resources here.