Cost of Accessible Housing. An Analysis of the Estimated Cost of Compliance withthe Fair Housing Accessibility Guidelines and ANSI A 117.1

摘要

This document uses cost estimates generated by builders and developers todemonstrate that achieving accessibility need not require the construction of larger or more expensive units. For this study, representative market-rate projects not originally designed to be accessible were redesigned to meet Fair Housing Accessibility Guidelines. It found that the modifications increased the cost of a dwelling unit by an average of .29%, and site costs for building a moderate-to-steep slope by 8.58%. Total project cost increases averaged .34%. The study notes that if accessibility requirements had been considered as part of the original design process, as would normally be the case, these cost differentials would have been smaller. The units in these projects were redesigned to conform with the American National Standards Institute's (ANSI)A117.1 Standard, which remains a model for many State and local codes. Each case study provides specific real-life examples of how site and unit designs are evaluated under the terms of the Guidelines.