My name is Domonique Howell. I am an advocate and a mother from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. My advocacy journey began 11 years ago accidentally when life happened, and disability discrimination intersected within the healthcare system.

Unfortunately, as the years followed while advocating for change in the healthcare systems, I continued to be faced with many hardships, including housing insecurity and homelessness. In 2017, my family and I found ourselves wrongfully evicted due to the impact of gentrification rapidly happening in our neighborhood. Even during the eviction, I am happy to say that my advocacy efforts were able to help place my then 90-year-old grandmother in a safe environment. Sadly, I could not do that for myself and my then 3-year-old daughter because I require affordable, accessible housing that was not easily found.

With the difficulty of trying to obtain housing, my daughter and I attempted to enter the shelter but were denied entry due to discrimination because I require home and community-based services (HCBS), which is my right to have as a person with a disability. HCBS pays for the services I need to live in my housing and the community of my choice. After months of couch surfing with my daughter while I slept in my wheelchair, I had no choice but to try entering the shelter system again, only to be greeted with another denial. However, this time I decided to fight for the right of shelter placement. With a team of mentors, advocates, friends, and legal assistance, we forced the shelter system to help my daughter and me.  My battle with the shelter system didn’t end there. Due to the inaccessibility of the shelter, I had to continue to sleep in my wheelchair along with other discriminations and barriers that were not properly addressed. In turn, this led me to use my voice to tell my story to shed light on the ongoing housing crisis that people with disabilities face, along with the discrimination that the shelter system adopted.  

After 11 months of being without a home of our own, with the help of disability and housing advocacy, and legal assistance, my child and I were home again. 

Unfortunately, the story of that and my family is not a unique one, especially in Philadelphia where almost half of the residents only have an income of $57,000 and can’t afford the rent or the mortgage even with rental assistance. With the current population of 246,000 people living in Philadelphia with a disability who live below poverty; as gentrification becomes the primary focus in housing, it has become my life’s work to make sure that all people with disabilities have access to disability-forward housing that is affordable across the city and the nation. My housing advocacy work as an independent living specialist, advocate, and activist has been centered on holding local, statewide, and national lawmakers accountable to ensure they serve the needs of their constituents, especially those in marginalized communities such as people with disabilities so that they don’t experience what I endured. However, my colleagues and I cannot do this work alone. We need all of you reading this to take a stand against housing insecurity, housing inaccessibility, and gentrification because residents deserve better than subpar living regardless of their incomes or disabilities.

Lastly, but most importantly, whether you are an advocate, elected official, or housing developer,  please understand that you have the power to build housing without barriers that is integrated, affordable, sustainable, and accessible. After all, accessible housing should be a human right for everyone.