Accessible housing, modification funding, saving without losing benefits, and the accommodations you can require.
Kouzr does not run, fund or process any of these programs, and nothing here is legal, benefits or financial advice. Eligibility is decided by the agency that administers the program, and the figures behind every one of them (income limits, funding, waiting lists) change at least annually, so the agency's own page is the only current source. A HUD-approved housing counselor will go through any of it with you at no charge. See also our note on grant scams.
Two separate things get filed under this heading, and it is worth separating them before anything else, because one of them costs nothing and has no waiting list. There are programs, which pay for housing or for adapting it, and there are rights, which oblige a landlord, a condominium board or a homeowners association to change something whether they want to or not. Most pages on this subject cover only the first. The second is the part you can use this week.
The other thing worth stating plainly: disability income counts as income for a mortgage. Long-term SSDI, VA disability compensation and private disability insurance are all usable to qualify for a loan, and a lender may not treat them as lesser income or ask when you expect to recover. The obstacle to buying is almost never the income. It is the resource limit on means-tested benefits, and that has its own answer further down this page.
Your rights, which need no application
These are obligations on the housing provider rather than programs you join. There is no funding cap and no list to be on.
Federal · Your rights
Reasonable accommodation and modification
HUD Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity
The Fair Housing Act right to ask a landlord, condominium board or homeowners association to change a rule that blocks equal use of a home, and to make a physical change to the unit at your own expense.
Who it is for: Anyone with a disability as the Act defines it. The right applies to the rules as much as to the building: an assistance animal in a no-pets building is the most common example.
In Nevada: It binds HOAs, which matters in Clark County, where a large share of homes sit under one.
Accommodation and modification, and why the difference matters
The Fair Housing Act uses two words that sound interchangeable and are not, and which one applies usually decides who pays.
A reasonable accommodation is a change to a rule, a policy or a service. Waiving a no-pets rule for an assistance animal is the most common one. Assigning a parking space nearer the door, allowing a live-in aide in a building with occupancy limits, accepting rent on the day benefits arrive rather than the first of the month, sending notices in a format you can read: all accommodations. They cost the landlord little or nothing, and that is largely why the obligation to grant them is strong.
A reasonable modification is a physical change to the building. A ramp, a wider doorway, grab rails, a roll-in shower, lowered counters. In private housing the right is to be allowed to make the change, generally at your own expense, and a landlord may require that the interior be restored when you leave where restoration is reasonable. In federally assisted housing the provider itself is usually the one that has to pay.
Both requests are made to whoever controls the housing, and neither has to be made on a form. It is worth making the request in writing anyway, and keeping the reply, because a refusal is only worth challenging if you can show it happened. A provider may ask for verification that a disability-related need exists when it is not obvious. It may not ask for your diagnosis, your medical records or the severity of your condition, and it may not ask any of it as part of an ordinary rental application.
If a request is refused, the complaint goes to HUD's Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, and in Nevada the state protection and advocacy organization will take it up at no charge. The deadline for a HUD complaint is one year from the discrimination, which is shorter than people expect.
Buying, adapting and saving
The purchase side. The VA grants are the largest single source of money for adapting a home, and the ABLE account is the one that solves the savings problem rather than the buying problem.
Federal · Grant or discount
Specially Adapted Housing and Special Home Adaptation grants
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Grants to buy, build or modify a home so a veteran with a qualifying service-connected disability can live in it independently, paid as a grant rather than a loan.
Who it is for: Veterans and service members with specific service-connected disabilities. Which grant applies turns on the disability, and the VA decides that, not the builder.
A tax-advantaged savings account for disability-related costs, including housing, whose balance is disregarded up to a limit when means-tested benefits are assessed.
Who it is for: People whose disability began before the age threshold in the federal statute. It is the mechanism that lets someone on benefits save a down payment without the savings costing them the benefit.
In Nevada: Nevada runs its own ABLE plan through the State Treasurer, and you do not have to use your own state's plan.
One FHA mortgage that covers both the purchase price and the cost of the repairs, so a home that will not pass an ordinary appraisal can still be bought and fixed.
Who it is for: Buyers of a home needing work, and owners refinancing to pay for it. It is also the route to financing accessibility work into the purchase itself.
A VA guarantee that lets a lender write a mortgage with no down payment and no monthly mortgage insurance, which is the strongest purchase benefit any of these programs carries.
Who it is for: Eligible veterans, service members, National Guard and Reserve members, and some surviving spouses. Eligibility is proved with a Certificate of Eligibility from the VA.
Saving a down payment without losing your benefits
This is the obstacle that actually stops people, and it is not the one most housing pages address. SSI is means-tested against a resource limit that is low and has not moved in decades. Savings above it can end the benefit, and the benefit is often tied to Medicaid, so the real cost of saving too much is medical coverage rather than a monthly payment. Faced with that, saving a down payment looks like a trap, and people quite rationally do not try.
The ABLE account is the answer Congress built for it. Money held in one is disregarded when means-tested benefits are assessed, up to a limit, and it can be spent on housing among other disability-related costs. It is opened directly with a state plan, and you are not restricted to your own state's. Nevada runs one through the State Treasurer. Eligibility turns on the disability having begun before an age threshold set in federal law, which is the condition to check first.
Two related mechanisms are worth naming, because a benefits or disability attorney will raise them and this page is not the place to choose between them. A special needs trust can hold assets, including a home, without those assets counting against benefits, and it is the usual route when family money or a settlement is involved. Social Security also runs a plan that lets some recipients set aside income toward a specific goal without it counting. Which of the three fits is a question for somebody who can see your whole file, and getting it wrong is expensive, so this is the point at which free advice is worth going to find.
Note also what does not count: the home you live in is not a countable resource for SSI. The difficulty is entirely in the saving, not in the owning.
Renting, and the subsidized stock
Section 811 is the housing built specifically for disabled adults. The voucher programs are open to everyone under the income limits, and several give a preference to disabled households.
Federal · Subsidized rental
Section 811 Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities
HUD Office of Multifamily Housing
Rental housing subsidized specifically for adults with disabilities, with supportive services attached, funded either through nonprofit developers or through state housing agencies.
Who it is for: Very low and extremely low income adults with disabilities. Referral often runs through the state health or housing agency rather than by direct application.
HUD, administered by local public housing agencies
A subsidy paid to a private landlord on your behalf, so the household pays a share of its income toward the rent and the agency pays the rest.
Who it is for: Households under the income limits for their area and size, screened by the local agency. Eligibility puts you on a waiting list rather than into a home: the vouchers are capped, and most lists are long or closed.
In Nevada: The Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority runs the program for much of the valley, and opens its lists in announced windows rather than continuously.
Apartment buildings whose owners hold a contract with HUD, so the subsidy belongs to the unit rather than to the tenant and you apply to the building directly.
Who it is for: Households under the income limit for that property. This is the part of the system that takes applications on ordinary days, and no voucher is needed.
In Nevada: Use the HUD Resource Locator to list the assisted properties near an address, then contact each building's own office.
The public housing agency for much of the Las Vegas valley: vouchers, public housing, and the tax credit and project-based stock it manages.
Who it is for: Households in its service area. Its waiting lists open in announced windows, and the notices are on its own site rather than anywhere else.
In Nevada: The single most useful page for a Clark County renter, because it is where a list opening is announced and the window is measured in weeks.
Paying for modifications to a home you already have
For owners. Ask the state disability services office before paying out of pocket: modification funding is the thing it exists to route, and Medicaid waivers cover work that surprises people.
Nevada · Repairs
Aging and Disability Services Division
Nevada Department of Health and Human Services
The state division that funds home and vehicle modifications, assistive technology, in-home support and the waiver services that pay for accessibility work.
Who it is for: Nevadans with disabilities and older adults, through the division's own programs and through Medicaid waivers it helps administer.
In Nevada: The state office to ask before paying for a ramp, a lift or a bathroom conversion out of pocket.
Loans to low income owners to repair or modernize a home, and grants to older low income owners specifically to remove health and safety hazards.
Who it is for: Owner-occupants in eligible rural areas under the very low income limit for their county. The grant half is restricted by age; the loan half is not.
In Nevada: Outside the Las Vegas valley, which sits beyond USDA's eligible area, and available across much of rural Nevada.
Free energy efficiency work on the home of a low income household: insulation, sealing, and repairs to the heating and cooling system, done by a state-contracted crew.
Who it is for: Low income owners and renters. Older adults and households with a disabled member are given priority in most states.
The Aging and Disability Services Division of Nevada's health department is the office to start with for anything physical: it funds home and vehicle modifications, assistive technology and in-home support, and it helps administer the Medicaid waivers that pay for accessibility work. It is the call to make before paying for a ramp, a lift or a bathroom conversion yourself.
For anything legal, the Nevada Disability Advocacy and Law Center is the state's designated protection and advocacy organization and takes housing discrimination and refused accommodation cases at no charge. Every state has one of these; Nevada's is unusually easy to reach.
Two Clark County specifics. Most homes here sit under a homeowners association, and the Fair Housing Act binds an HOA exactly as it binds a landlord, so architectural rules that block a ramp are subject to the accommodation obligation rather than final. And the valley is outside USDA's eligible area, so the USDA repair money on this page applies to the rest of the state rather than to the metro.
Elsewhere on the site: the HOA guide covers how an association makes and enforces rules, and buying a fixer-upper covers the renovation loan mechanics that a 203(k) accessibility project runs on.
Questions people ask
Can you buy a house on disability benefits?
Yes. Disability income counts as income for a mortgage, and lenders are required to treat it like any other stable income. Long-term SSDI, VA disability compensation and private disability insurance are all usable to qualify. A lender may ask for proof the income continues, but it cannot ask about the disability itself or require proof of when you might recover.
Will buying a home cost me my SSI?
The home you live in is not a countable resource for SSI, so owning it does not disqualify you. The problem is the money in the account before you buy, because SSI has a low resource limit and savings above it do count. An ABLE account is the mechanism built for exactly this: money held in one is disregarded up to a limit, so a down payment can be saved without it counting against you.
Can a landlord refuse an assistance animal in a no-pets building?
Generally not. An assistance animal is not a pet under the Fair Housing Act, so a no-pets rule is one of the rules a landlord has to consider waiving as a reasonable accommodation, and a pet deposit cannot be charged for one. The landlord may ask for documentation of the disability-related need where it is not obvious, but not for details of the diagnosis.
Who pays for a ramp or a wider doorway?
It depends on whether you rent or own and on the source. In a rental, the Fair Housing Act gives you the right to make a reasonable modification, generally at your own expense, though federally assisted housing often has to pay for it. As an owner, the funding routes are state disability services, Medicaid waivers, USDA repair money in rural areas, and the VA grants if the disability is service-connected.
What is the difference between an accommodation and a modification?
An accommodation changes a rule; a modification changes the building. Waiving a no-pets policy for an assistance animal or assigning a closer parking space is an accommodation. Fitting a ramp, widening a doorway or adding grab rails is a modification. Both are rights under the Fair Housing Act, and the distinction matters because it usually decides who pays.
Does an HOA have to grant a reasonable accommodation?
Yes. The Fair Housing Act binds homeowners associations and condominium boards the same way it binds landlords, so architectural rules and pet policies are both subject to it. This matters in Clark County, where a large share of homes sit under an HOA.
How do I get onto Section 811 housing?
Usually by referral rather than by direct application, which is the part that surprises people. Much of the newer Section 811 stock is allocated through state health and housing agencies, so the route in is the state disability services office rather than a building's leasing desk. The older nonprofit-developed properties do take applications directly.
Can I be asked what my disability is?
Not as a condition of renting or buying. A housing provider may ask for verification that a disability-related need exists when you request an accommodation and the need is not apparent, but it may not ask for the diagnosis, the severity or your medical records, and it may not ask at all as part of an ordinary application.