Poverty, disability go hand-in-hand in 77051

This week marks the 26th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act, which was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush on July 26, 1990, and prohibits discrimination against 56.7 million Americans with disabilities.

In Houston, Sunnyside’s 77051 ZIP code has the highest share of disabled residents, with 22.4 percent of people in this area reporting at least one disability. The rate is even higher for Sunnyside seniors, at 63.1 percent of folks 65 and older, giving the ZIP code Houston’s highest concentration of disabled seniors as well.

Older Americans are far more likely to have a disability than the total population. More than 15 million people over the age of 65 have at least one disability, accounting for 39 percent of that age group. And Texas makes up a substantial portion of this population with 1.1 million disabled seniors, behind California with 1.6 million and Florida with 1.2 million.

The saturation in Sunnyside is overwhelming, but it fits the national narrative.

Poverty and disability often go hand-in-hand, especially among seniors. In 2012, the Census reported that 12.6 percent of older Americans with disabilities lived in poverty, compared with 7.2 percent of older Americans as a whole. And in Sunnyside, 37.9 percent of residents live below the poverty line, including 23.7 percent of people 65 or older.