For more information on the HomeMod program, visit https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/mopd/provdrs/hous/svcs/accessible_home_modificationprogram-ages0-5911.html
SPEAKER:
Thank you for watching. And for a full transcript, visit www.fun4thedisabled.com. We hope you enjoy (INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING).
VANESSA HARRIS:
This is Vanessa Harris with Fun4theDisabled. I’m here with Mark Nobriga today of the Mayor’s Office of People with Disabilities. He’s gonna be talking about HomeMod. Take it away, Mark.
MARK NOBRIGA:
Hi. Let me catch up here for a second. I got to share my screen, so give me a second while I start the presentation. Here we go. Do you see the screen?
VANESSA HARRIS:
Yes, I do.
MARK NOBRIGA:
OK. So, what we’re here today to talk about is the HomeMod program. Before I do that, we have a couple interesting flyers that we typically hand out. One of those flyers is our funding resource flyer. The front of it gives you a little bit of an explanation about HomeMod services. The rear of it has a ton of resources that deal directly with home modifications and how to obtain funding for them. Of course, HomeMod, the program with MOPD, the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, is one of those resources. In addition to our Home modification program, something we provide in conjunction with it is assistive technology. We sometimes refer to it as assistive devices as well. Those can be anything that is equipment related to the modification we provide. So, an example of that would be a tub transfer bench or an elevated toilet seat above standard height, or an ADA toilet. Those can all be things that we provide as part of our program. Now, the HomeMod program is, simply put, a program that provides accessible modifications within the city of Chicago.
The modifications do have a maximum of $15,000 per project. It’s not a dollar amount per se but is a limit per client that we can spend per year. All of our work, of course, is done by licensed contractors. We obtain permits for everything. And it’s really, when you think about it, a one-stop shop to receiving an accessible modification to your home. The people that can participate in our program have to be city of Chicago residents under the age of 59. I will go over later a couple of our collaborations that allow us to serve seniors and CHA housing inhabitants. So, the HomeMod program is exactly what it sounds like. It is a program that alters the interior or exterior of the home to be accessible for people with disabilities. One of the things we do are lifts and ramps for the exterior of the home. That is pretty much one of the most popular things we do because life safety and egress and ingress are of great concern for just life safety and fire safety for people with disabilities.
These lifts and or ramps we provide allow an individual with a disability to exit and enter a home independently, which is one of our main priorities of this program. In addition, you can see that we , On this slide, there are pictures and one of those pictures is of a lift in the front of the home. A secondary picture on this slide is also a roll-in shower. So, some of the things we do on homes for accessibility within the bathroom are one of the main things we do are is take out tubs. So, what we do is we essentially do a gut rehab of a bathroom where we take out a tub and all surface-mounted fixtures and we really redo everything, including the plumbing behind the wall, the plumbing under the floor. We adjust the drainage for showers, we address the floor pitch, we adjust the stability of the floor and even the material that goes down on the floor, of course, that in some homes mean we’re doing more work and in other homes, we’re doing less work. And that’s really based on what we see once we open the walls.
So, in this bathroom, we can see that we’ve maintained the ventilation to the outside with a glass block window and a door that, a little screen door that opens up for ventilation. Some buildings already have built-in ceiling ventilation. We have increased the floor size of this particular bathroom by removing the tub and installing a roll-in shower. Without the tub present, you can see that the floor ratio is vastly bigger, and having stood inside a bathroom with a missing tub, you can see that there’s actually, it feels visually and then actually is a larger floor plan which allows a person with mobility disabilities, especially in a wheelchair or a walker, to have more room to navigate and or turn around within spaces. We typically take out the vanity and put in a pedestal sink or a roll-in sink that allows for, again, more turning radiuses below and it also allows for either a side or a frontal approach to daily activities of living, such as brushing, flossing, getting ready in the morning, washing faces and things like that.
The toilets are typically either, it depends on what we see there, but the toilets can be modified and or replaced to have an extended height toilet, which is essentially a toilet that’s 19 inches off the ground. And then you add in the seat height, you can look into the shower area, you can see that we’ve added controls up and down. So, these controls are things you can take off the wall, such as the shower handle and the shower valve itself come off the wall, the sprayer comes off the wall and you can move all of that stuff around. You’ll see in the bathtub area that was made into a shower area, the addition of grab rails for stability. We can add additional grab rails on the floor near the toilet, wall, sink, anywhere that’s needed. The mirror on the wall is actually a mirror that can be pulled and or rotated downwards so it can give a perpendicular approach to a person in the wheelchair. Obviously, somebody sitting in that seat in a wheelchair is lower therefore the mirror can rotate forward and out, which points it downward.
It’s hard to see in the picture, but there is a little gasket on the floor that’s clear. It blends in with the tile. But once you’re inside the shower, you can move the shower curtain to stay inside the gasket. And that’s how we keep the water in the shower area. Once it hits the inside of the shower curtain, it will also then go down into the sloped floor of the drain. Moving on to the third picture on this slide, you can see another, not as common modification, but it’s also something we do. Kitchen modification is what we’re talking about here. The kitchen modifications are sometimes difficult. Kitchens are extremely expensive. So, we have to limit what we do in kitchens. But what you can see in this instance is that we’ve modified the countertops, we’ve lowered the kitchen cabinets, so they’re slightly accessible to somebody with limited mobility. What you don’t see is that once the upper cabinets are opened, their shelves that actually pop out and rotate down. That’s all that can all be done and achieved from a seated position.
You can see that we’ve created work areas next to the stove. You can see that we’ve created work areas under the sink and that we’ve padded the sink drains with a heat resistant material that stops you from getting scalded from the hot water that drains down the sink itself. So, those are three simple, not simple, but they are modifications that we can provide to the home. There are many more we do widening of doorways, we do ceiling lifts, we do stairlifts, and all kinds of modifications that are directly tied into the home for people with disabilities. This is the next slide that just gives you some of the idea of what we do here at HomeMod and how many of each we do. So, as you can see, lifts are by far the greatest modification we do, and it’s also the number one priority we put behind providing a first time accessibility within the home. The bathrooms obviously come in second. Those are our two largest projects we provide and make up more than 50% of all jobs we do. Chairlifts. Another one, other is a conglomeration of other multiple disabilities and multiple solutions for the home for those disabilities.
As you can see in Chicago, ramps are a rarity and that is simply due to the lot requirements, the height requirements of the ramp and the size of these ramps, and how large they have to be, based on the property dimensions. So, in case anybody knows, a ramp that has to go up, one foot has to go out 12 inches, I’m sorry, a ramp that goes up, one inch has to go out one foot. So, that’s a one to 12 slope. And anything going out, obviously, those dimensions add up and over time make it hard to put a ramp on the property. Assistive devices are again what we talked about, the jobs that require assistive devices. In addition to the home modifications themselves, we do collect a large set of data. We’ve been studied by several entities, including the Federal Government, HUD, Woodstock Institute, and they’ve provided studies on the services we provide to the community and shown and proved that providing a HomeMod is far less costly than institutionalization, which is what sometimes happens when a home becomes inaccessible to an individual as they’re aging in place.
So, that is really the conclusion of our program. I did want to go over two small things, well, not small things, but they are two things that we’re doing currently. We have a collaboration with the Department of Housing where we provide lifts for seniors. That is something very new and something we’re working with right now. We are currently involved in that and lifts are going up for them. We also have a collaboration with the CHA and we are providing very accessible modifications to the CHA units within the city of Chicago as well. So, we actually do work for not only the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, but the Department of Housing and the CHA. So, that really concludes our presentation for today. I am going to try to figure out how to stop sharing my screen (LAUGHS) eventually and there I am back. And then, of course, this is the part where I would open up the presentation to take any questions that may come around.
VANESSA HARRIS:
OK. I have a question for you. This is related to you indicated that this program is for people less than the age of 59. MARK NOBRIGA:
Correct.
VANESSA HARRIS:
Okay. So, you also indicated that there were people who became disabled as they aged. So, senior citizens may sometimes have disabilities and they’re not eligible for this program. But they may need a bathroom modification or a kitchen modification and not necessarily a lift. Is that something that’s covered, you said under the Department of Housing, where would they go if they’re a senior citizen and they need some other modification to their home?
MARK NOBRIGA:
So, if you are a senior citizen, there’s two paths really you can take. So, as I mentioned, the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities does have a collaboration where we provide lifts to the SARFs program. The SARFs program within it has a program called the Senior Ramp and Lift Program. MOPD Our program is the person that provides or the entity that provides those lifts. The SARFs program is, would be the program that would provide any other accessible modifications, and that includes quick things within the bathroom and or anything related as needed. Small accessible modifications for seniors is more than it sounds. It does repairs as well. So, it does all kinds of little things for the home to keep people in their homes and help with the needs of seniors. So, from what I understand also the Small Accessible Repairs For Seniors Program is currently retooling. Their main larger portion, which is the SARFs program, small Accessible Repairs for Seniors. And they’re gonna be working with their state network to see if they can provide or define that program a little better, I think.
And perhaps maybe that will be the inclusion of exactly what you’re asking for, which is maybe a bathroom.
VANESSA HARRIS:
OK.
MARK NOBRIGA:
That’s something we’ll have to wait for, though. I know there’s a couple meetings coming up with them. And so, we’ll see how they tool or retool their program to be more inclusive of all the needs of the seniors’ population that they have.
VANESSA HARRIS:
And this will be the Department of Housing?
MARK NOBRIGA:
Yeah. So, the Department of Housing is the current owner of the Small Accessible Repairs for Seniors Program. That program has been passed around through the years. It used to be, I think, with Department of Buildings, it used to be with seniors services, it is currently housed in the Department of Housing.
VANESSA HARRIS:
OK. Alright. So, getting back to the HomeMod program, specifically, how does one apply?
MARK NOBRIGA:
So, the HomeMod program is an easy application. You can apply in many places. One and the easiest one is simply by calling 311 and using the keyword HomeMod, h-o-m-e-m-o-d. And they will be able to put you on a list, to receive an application in either electronic format, fillable online, or through a paper format if you’re more comfortable with paper. Another way to get our application is by going to the city of Chicago’s website, typing in the word disability and or HomeMod H-o-m-e-M-o-d, hitting Enter, and then it should link you to our actual HomeMod application. Again, this is an electronic document, it can be downloaded, it can be printed or it can be filled out online and submitted to us. All the instructions for that are actually on the application themselves. The last part is you can simply call 744 MOPD 312 and they can send you out an application in any format you would like. We do have applications in English, Chinese, Spanish, and we can get any other translations done that are needed.
VANESSA HARRIS:
How long does it take to get the process started between the time that the application is submitted and is accepted?
MARK NOBRIGA:
The average day, the average amount of days required to perform a home modification. And as I’ve went over this application process and the entire program and the types of jobs we do, it varies greatly because of the complexity of some of the jobs versus other jobs being more simple, the average job time takes roughly 111 days from the day you submit your application to the day we bill out and your warranty for each project goes into effect. So, you could be looking at anywhere from, I’d say, three, four to six months.
VANESSA HARRIS:
OK. OK,
MARK NOBRIGA:
And that and of course, the longest part, of course, is ordering equipment and getting permits because we do everything by the book. So, the two, you apply or you’ll see us out there within a week or two weeks and we’ll get our assessment done in another week and you’ll know exactly what’s happening within two to three weeks. Now, from then on comes the hard part. Then comes the architectural drawings, the ordering of equipment, setting up crews, getting permits, doing architectural drawings, price estimating approvals, everything that comes along with construction in the city of Chicago.
VANESSA HARRIS:
OK. What if it’s determined that a modification is gonna cost more than $15,000?
MARK NOBRIGA:
So, there’s a couple of things that we do. Before we even tell you that the modification is gonna go over the $15,000 amount, we want to design things and take on jobs that we know don’t do that. Two, if it does, for some reason, let’s say there’s a unique situation and the cost of the job looks like it’s gonna go over and it does go over, me and my team will go through, really just project management and try to figure out if we can reduce the cost of the job in any way. Can we design it differently such that it costs less money? Can we reduce the scope of the job and still provide a meaningful, accessible modification? That may not be 100% of what this individual wants, but it may solve an accessible issue. So, there are many tiers of what we do to reduce the cost to make sure that we can still provide a service. And if we have done all those things and we still come out with the fact that this job might just cost more than we’re allowed to spend, we have two methods we can do. We can offer a copay to the client, meaning that if the job is $15,520 and there’s no way we can get it to 15,000, we might offer the client a copay where they pay anything over $15,000, which would be $500 in that example.
Or we can also provide what’s called a hardship letter where the client can claim hardship and then get passed for that overage without having to pay for it as well.
VANESSA HARRIS:
OK. Thank you very much, Mark Nobriga, from the Mayor’s Office of People with Disabilities Home Modification Program, HomeMod, and you can contact them by going to, tell us again how you can contact HomeMod Program Mark?
MARK NOBRIGA:
You can go to the City of Chicago main website and look up the Office of Disabilities, which is the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities under the department tab. Once in there, you’ll see HomeMod on the main page of that, at the Mayor’s Office for Disabilities main web page. So, HomeMod will be right there on the front page and you can click on that and you’ll see all our numbers and contact information there. If you have a really good memory, you can always reach me at 312-743-1523.
VANESSA HARRIS:
OK. Thank you very much, Mark. This is Vanessa Harris signing off from fun4thedisabled. Bye-bye.
(INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYS)
Recent Comments