ROCK CAVE, W.Va. — Sarah and Ricky Mathes waited out July’s deadly storms in the only home they know — a 30-foot camper off of a gravel road in the rural community of Rock Cave in Upshur County, West Virginia.
The trailer has been deteriorating since they bought it used in 2022 to put a roof over their heads. They’ve covered the top in a blue tarp, a futile attempt to keep out water. The windows and doors don’t seal anymore.
“Every time it rains, (Ricky) has to clean the carpet, run fans across the carpet,” Sarah Mathes said. “Our mattress has been soaked countless times, the pillows. Because it’s all starting to come in the seams of the cabinet.”
Sarah has multiple sclerosis and uses a wheelchair. She needs handicapped-accessible housing, which is in short supply in her community, she said.
“We have nowhere to go,” she said. “There is no emergency housing or housing for a disabled person.”
The camper was only meant to be a temporary housing solution for the couple — a step up from couch surfing and sleeping in cars. But they’ve been on waiting lists for subsidized housing since 2020.
Heather Schnieder, the co-founder and coordinator of Appalachian Mutual Aid Collective, an Upshur County nonprofit organization that works with those struggling with housing, said the Mathes’ story is not unique.
“When someone has disabilities in the community and is also low income, it’s very hard, as you can see, nearly impossible to get into one of the handicap accessible units in the neighborhoods that are also supposed to be income accessible for people who don’t have a lot of money,” she said.
Several of the public housing projects in the area have units, she said, but only a small percentage have handicapped accessible housing. Once people get into these units, they tend to stay there, she said.
“That’s where they live out the rest of their life,” Schneider said. “And I understand that, because they’re people who are on fixed incomes and also need that type of accessible housing. Why would they move? So it’s very hard for anybody who is needing to get into those units to get in, and they have been on lists. Some of them up to six years.”
‘Accessible units are desperately needed’
More than 60,000 West Virginians rely on federal rental assistance, and a quarter of those using assistance have a disability, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Upshur and other regional counties already have a shortage of subsidized housing units that are accessible for seniors and those with disabilities, according to the 2025 Statewide Housing Needs Assessment by the West Virginia Housing Development Fund.
West Virginia is projected to lose more than a quarter of its federally subsidized low-income rental units due to federal changes, according to the report.
April Dotson, the executive director of the Buckhannon Upshur Housing Development Authority, said their agency oversees one property with 84 units, 29 of which are handicapped accessible. All of the accessible units are occupied, she said.
According to The Kelsey, a national organization that builds and advocates for disability-forward housing, less than 6% of housing stock in the United States is accessible to those with sensory and mobility disabilities. With so few options available, the organization says those units should be matched with people who really need them, but that’s often not the case.
“Accessible units are desperately needed,” the organization wrote in an undated report. “However, local, state and federal governments and the housing field have failed to create and implement systems that track, affirmatively market and match accessible units to tenants who need them.
“Municipalities can strengthen existing policies and practices and build out new ones to ensure that the limited supply of accessible units, regardless of the funding source, is matched to tenants who need them,” they wrote.
Schnieder said July’s deadly storms and flooding only complicated and worsened living situations for some Upshur County clients she works with. One family was living in a camper that floated away during the flood. They were able to get the trailer back and are living in it again, she said.
Schnieder said any housing that’s built in the future needs to be accessible for those with disabilities.
“Right now I may be able-bodied, but as someone who has been a caregiver for multiple family members throughout their life, I know that at any given moment, something can change your life drastically,” she said. “My father had a series of strokes at the age of 54, and that’s only 10 years away from my age.”
“If we’re building housing, ADA compliant right from the beginning, and anyone in our community should be able to use it,” she said.
As for Sarah and Ricky Mathes, she is filling out an application for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Mathes said being in the small space has added to the mobility problems caused by her disease.
“I don’t have the room to get up and move around any,” she said. “I mean, I can’t even propel my own self in my wheelchair, because there’s no room.”
And as hard as the summer storms have been, the couple is also dreading the upcoming winter. They typically spend hundreds of dollars to keep their propane tank filled because the hot air flows through the trailer.
She said her living situation is wearing on her mental health.
“I’m to the point where I’m mentally breaking,” she said. “It’s where I think about all this and wonder why people want to keep sweeping us under the rug?”
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