Moving advice— wheelchair accessibility and more

Submitted by Dismal_Exchange1799 t3_110omd5 in providence

Hello all. My partner and I currently live in Philly and we need to get the hell outta here. We’re between Boston and Providence. We’ve visited both and I have family in RI so I grew up going all the time as a kid. We love both places for different reasons. Leaning more towards Providence due to price and family.

Online it seems difficult to find apartments, very little comes up. I’m in a wheelchair and I have a wheelchair accessible van to drag around, so accessibility is an issue. The problem I’ve run into in cities is that buildings with parking/elevators are the luxurious most expensive ones.

We really don’t want to go above $3,500 for rent. A one bedroom is fine. How much do you all know about the buildings that would fit this description? Sifting through apartment ratings are hell. I feel like they’re always “bad” no matter what.

Things really important to us are safety and walkability. I also have a service dog, so somewhere for him to walk. When my partner is working I like to go out in my chair so I want to be able to safely explore and enjoy the area.

Off the topic of complexes/areas— if anyone has experience with RI Medicaid I’d love to hear how that has gone. The only good thing about Philly has been the Medicaid. I’m worried about leaving that for something worse. I’m on caregiving hours through community health based services, and I get a good amount. I would hope it wouldn’t be lower wherever I move.

Where we live right now is not safe at all. I’m faced with constant barriers. The crime is a nightmare, we’re never safe even in the nice areas. And we chose one of the “nicest areas.” Our building is falling apart. The sidewalks are absolutely impossible. It’s absolutely filthy everywhere you walk. Our complex has been neglectful in everything they do. Doing anything is extremely hard. I’m terrified to move somewhere else and have the same thing happen. When we chose this place everything appeared great at first.

We are taking another trip in the spring to look at areas and apartments. Any advice for the upcoming trip would be appreciated.

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Status_Silver_5114 t1_j8a60iv wrote

Use a realtor - in rI landlords pay the broker fee not tenants. So it’s free to use them to find a place.

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MonicaPVD t1_j8a552w wrote

Every converted mill building and modern apartment building has ramps and elevators and generally good with Ada compliance. Apartments in multifamily homes will most likely not have any of these things unless that is explicitly stated.

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Dismal_Exchange1799 OP t1_j8a5dx5 wrote

I did see quite a few mill apartments come up! We currently live in a loft style building that was once a school. So, that’s technically how we navigated in Philly as well.

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KilgoreTrrout t1_j8bktpn wrote

i think i follow you on instagram lol

providence is not very wheelchair friendly unfortunately, it ranks pretty low on lists of accessible cities. my partner used a wheelchair for a few years and it was very difficult to navigate the city sidewalks. cleanliness varies a lot by area but generally the city is cleaner the closer you are to the brown/risd bubble

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Dismal_Exchange1799 OP t1_j8bx1zk wrote

Oh nooo, can’t hide anywhere lol. Hi from Instagram. Sadly that’s all of the northeast cities. Providence and Boston especially are more accessible than Philly so I’ll take it. I’m pretty used to it at this point.

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zebrawithflowers t1_j8d6eb7 wrote

Not sure if this is helpful, but have you considered buying? If your budget is up to $3500, I'm thinking you could buy a nice little ranch house in North Providence with a yard and a driveway. I'd look in the area bounded by Smith Street, Woonasquatucket Ave, and Fruit Hill Ave. There are probably some options north of Smith in that general vicinity as well.

Good luck with your search!

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Mountain_Bill5743 t1_j8g57s8 wrote

I put in this PSA a lot, but I'd live here first. It sounds like OPs partner has only visited and not lived here and there's just a lot to figure out before jumping in. A lot of the empty new builds will also agree to a 6 month lease which gives OP time to figure out all of the small details that go along with wheelchair access in a new city.

For example,the west side has some of the worst plowing/shoveling that I have ever seen. A lot of places in PVD also have sidewalks that just disappear randomly and large swaths or North Providence aren't walkable in many areas or pitch black at night. It also sounds like OP has a lot of contingencies based on Medicaid which I cannot personally speak to-- MA might be the long term option if it is significantly more robust than RI (if its like most govt functions here).

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zebrawithflowers t1_j8hu303 wrote

Good points, and I'll also add that the area I mentioned has almost no traffic and fairly well paved streets, so with lights for nighttime visibility, walking or rolling through the streets isn't unsafe.

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Aleyoop t1_j8dpbmm wrote

Regency Plaza apartments might work? I’m not sure about if they have wheelchair accessible units but they may.

They do have parking available (not sure about van accessible parking), and it’s a landscaped complex with fairly nice sidewalks so probably good for walking the pup. You’d be right in the downtown area where the sidewalks are at least better than the rest of the city.

Units are kind of dated and a expensive but a one bedroom should be well below your max budget.

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Dismal_Exchange1799 OP t1_j8dz93a wrote

I looked at this place online I was curious if it was worth checking out. I can add it to the list to see in person. Couldn’t tell for sure on parking so thanks for confirming that.

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