Building Economic Futures for Americans with Disabilities
Real Economic Impact Tour
WID Featured Successes
You Got to Believe - Lucius Mangrum
Eight years ago, Lucius Mangrum did what many thought was not possible. He became a person with a developmental disability who owns his own home. He was labeled at birth as “mentally retarded” and was frequently treated like less of a human being. Yet, Lucius has fought against labels and stereotypes his entire adult life and now he fights for others with disabilities. He has learned that it is not the color of your skin or the measure of your intelligence that makes a person human- it is what is in their heart.
Lucius did not become this smart or evolved overnight- years of listening to people put him down has not been easy. Born the son of a Pentecostal minister, his disability was considered a curse for some wrongdoing, of which he never had any part or say. Preacher’s kids were supposed to be perfect and from a very young age, Lucius was made perfectly aware of how far he was from the expected mold.
Yet, Lucius never lost faith. Starting work at age 15, he worked with mason workers and on the clean-up crew at the National Zoo in Washington D.C. But, Lucius wanted more for himself and others like him than a low wage job would ever provide. He knew that he was part of the working poor and was being taken advantage of in many ways. Lucius started getting involved with a coalition group- Project ACTION- that was fighting for the rights for people to live in the communities and settings of their choice, which meant that they were opposed to institutions and coercive group homes that restricted the choices of adults with disabilities.
Then one day after training with Project ACTION, Rebecca Salon- Director of the J.P. Kennedy Institute- asked Lucius if he had ever dreamt of owning his own home. At first, the idea seems silly. He was living in his own apartment- much more than many others like him could even imagine. Yet, the more Lucius thought about it, the more he liked the idea. Could he really own his own home in Washington D.C.? Two weeks later, he went back to Rebecca and asked if she was serious.
At that time, a new program called Home Of Your Own (HOYO) was just getting started as a way to help people with developmental disabilities become homeowners. The program has since largely been abandoned- in part due to lack of funding, but also a realization that poverty among people with developmental and intellectual disabilities runs so deep that the HOYO program just was not enough. Without the adequate employment, housing subsidies (like HUD’s Section 8 Homeownership Voucher), and other mechanisms to aid in securing the downpayment and providing for emergency reserves (every homeowner knows that the plumbing, heating system or roof, etc could fail), then no low-income person has a reasonable chance of making their American Dream a reality.
Yet, Lucius was the first and one of the very few in the Washington D.C. area to not only utilize the program and join the 70% of American that own their own homes- he still owns it today, eight years later. At first, it was very hard to find a bank that was willing to bank on Lucius, but his persistence prevailed. Even then, it took nearly two years for Lucius to really accept that it was truly his home. Despite his timely mortgage payments, he always thought that someone would come and take his home away and force him to move elsewhere. He credits the fact that he has always know how to budget- keeping every receipt and tracking his spending wisely.
Today, Lucius spends his time between the nearly 20 different committees he serves on and advocating for the rights of others with developmental disabilities. He has come a long way from the shy, seen-and-not-be-heard person with a disability to become a powerful advocate for others who believe that they do not have the right to speak for themselves and demand more from life. Lucius teaches others that they have to fight against people that constantly tell you what you cannot do and show them what you can.