The Kelsey
Model & Strategy
Building opportunity through inclusivity, The Kelsey pioneers disability-forward, inclusive housing solutions that open doors to homes and opportunities for everyone. The Kelsey has 303 inclusive, affordable, and accessible homes in their pipeline and has unlocked over $187 million in public, private, and philanthropic funding for disability-forward housing.
The Problem
61 million Americans with disabilities do not have their basic housing needs met. Disabled people experience the highest rates of homelessness, housing discrimination, and housing insecurity — experienced most acutely in communities where people have multiple marginalized identities. Yet, millions of disabled people continue to be overlooked, underrepresented, and underserved in housing. Those who rely on Supplemental Security Income are priced out of every single housing market in the U.S. and, on average, need to spend 142% of their income to afford basic housing. Despite 26% of adults having a disability, less than 5% of our nation’s housing stock is designed to be accessible. For an 18-year-old with intellectual disabilities aging out of inclusive youth programming or a young adult relying on Supplemental Security Income and living paycheck to paycheck, finding truly accessible, affordable, and inclusive housing in today’s market is nearly impossible. Housing has become a privilege for those with disabilities when it should be a basic right. The Kelsey exists to change this.
The Solution
Anchored on inclusion, The Kelsey advances a future where all people, across disabilities and access needs, can live full lives in connected, inclusive communities. Together with stakeholders, The Kelsey’s approach combines the development of affordable and inclusive homes, programming for residents to connect them to services and community, and using their impact to advance the market conditions, financing, and policy systems to support solutions at scale. They use philanthropy alongside lending and public funds to leverage all gifts 10 to 15 times toward building inclusive housing. With a community open in San Jose, CA, and communities in development in San Francisco, CA, and Birmingham, AL, The Kelsy is meeting immediate housing needs while demonstrating a model to finance, design, and operate inclusive housing at scale. The Kelsey’s signature Inclusion Concierge program — a funded program to help build community and connect residents to services — is a key amenity within their developments and is currently being piloted at inclusive partner properties in Oakland, CA. Their work is intentionally co-led by people with and without disabilities, ensuring people with lived experiences shape housing models and policy solutions.
The Kelsey’s approach to scale combines direct replication of their proven model, open-sourcing of their playbook for inclusive housing development, and government adoption of disability-forward policies and housing solutions. The Kelsey’s Inclusive Design Standards share guidelines for developing and operating disability-forward homes and are being implemented in projects nationwide. Advocacy and field building advance policies, leadership, and financing through collective impact to support disability-forward housing solutions at scale.
Micaela Connery and her cousin Kelsey O’Connor were born three months apart and went through every life milestone together. When it came time to live on their own, it took Micaela several months to find housing—but it took Kelsey almost eight years. Her family struggled to find a home that was supportive of her disabilities, while still letting Kelsey be part of the broader community. Micaela quickly learned housing wasn’t a challenge unique to Kelsey; less than 12% of adults with developmental disabilities had their own housing. She founded The Kelsey to change that reality.
Disability inclusion has been the center of Micaela’s entire life and career. She was the Founder and CEO of Unified Theater, which scaled to serve students with and without disabilities in over 100 schools and was acquired by Kids Included Together. As an undergraduate at the University of Virginia, Micaela led programs around community inclusion for individuals with autism. At the Harvard Kennedy School, she focused on disability housing models as a Fellow at the Joint Center for Housing Studies and a Social Innovation and Change Initiative.
Impact
Trained and engaged over 4,500 advocates and partnered with field leaders in housing, policy, and design.
Provided technical assistance to 15 disability-forward housing communities across eight states.
Their open-source Learn Center resources have been accessed over 3,500 times by over 2,300 individual users.
