Disability council criticises opposition to housing unit for people with intellectual disabilities in Lamminpää

Aamulehti reports that Tampere’s disability council says it is shocked by feedback opposing a housing unit for people with intellectual disabilities planned for Lamminpää.

The paper describes how some neighbours submitted statements against the project, expressing fears that residents would cause disturbance, noise and a drop in property values. In response, the disability council says the comments are prejudiced and offensive, stressing that people with disabilities have the same right as others to choose where to live. The council also points to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, noting that the agreement guarantees equal rights to choose one’s place of residence and living arrangements. It adds that discrimination, including discrimination against people with disabilities, is prohibited under Finland’s constitution.

The planned 24-place unit would be built at Laurinahonkatu 5 and is designed as a two-storey, log-structured building. The site currently has an ageing industrial property that has been granted a demolition permit and will be removed. Aamulehti writes that the city’s community committee decided on 3 March to grant an exception from the area’s zoning plan, allowing service housing for the plot. The committee said the unit would fit better into a residential environment and would put less strain on the area than industrial or warehousing-style construction. Disability council chair Katja Metsävainio and equality coordinator Mikko Ala-Kapee both urge neighbours to move away from discriminatory attitudes, and council member Tarja Mesiä says she has seen a more positive reception in Rahola’s Piikaha housing unit, where she has a close family connection.