Listed below is an article from
the DeKalb Chronicle about DCST swimmer Ashley Kim's family looking
for a wheelchair accessible home.
Family looks for accessible property for girl
By DANA HERRA dherra@daily-chronicle.com
 | GENOA – If all goes well, Ashley Kim should be ready to
come home from the hospital by February. The problem is, home for
the Genoa-Kingston seventh-grader is a second-floor apartment
completely inaccessible to her wheelchair.
Ashley, 12, suffered a spinal cord injury in September after
diving into a friend’s swimming pool. Ashley’s mother,
Jin Hee Shin, said her daughter is paralyzed from the chest down
and just recently began breathing on her own. She has been
hospitalized since the accident.
“Her projected leaving time is about the end of January,
but she can’t come home until there’s a place for her
to come home to,” said Andrea Qualls, one of Ashley’s
teachers at Genoa-Kingston Middle School and a friend of the Kim
family.
It’s not as simple as just moving to a different
apartment. There is little accessible housing in Genoa and
Kingston, according to staff at RAMP, a local nonprofit agency that
provides support and advocacy for people with disabilities.
“It’s very, very hard to find affordable, accessible
housing, especially in the smaller communities,” Richard
Schaller of RAMP said.
The agency is helping the family to coordinate post-hospital
services like rehabilitation and preparing to re-enter school, said
Tina Vavra, manager of RAMP’s DeKalb office.
It also is trying to find the family a new home, hopefully in
the G-K school district.
“The community has been so wonderful to the family it
would be like a double whammy to have this happen and then have to
leave,” Qualls said, noting there have been multiple
fundraisers for the family by groups including St. Catherine of
Genoa church and Ashley’s classmates at GKMS.
The hope is that a landlord with property in the community will
allow volunteers to make a rented home accessible to Ashley. Qualls
already has lined up willing volunteers from area churches to do
the labor, which would involve making the front door threshold flat
and making a bathroom wheelchair-accessible.
“I need to find out so my girl can come home,” Jin
Hee Kim said. “She needs to come home.”
There is a tax credit available to landlords who remodel their
property to make it accessible to people with disabilities, Vavra
said.
The exact amount of the credit depends on several factors,
including the square footage of the property.
So far, the family has only found one possible apartment, but
it’s in DeKalb and the rent is more than the Kims can afford,
Kim and Qualls said.
To Help
Landlords with available apartments in the Genoa-Kingston area
that are or could be made accessible can contact RAMP at
815-756-3202.
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