Aaron Lema Dreams of Simplified Housing for People with Disabilities By John M. Williams
Aaron Lema is a dreamer, inventor, pioneer and a man who is perpetually running a 100 meter Olympic race. He believes that improving the quality of life of your fellowman through the capitalist system is the right way to succeed and improve one’s own quality of life. One of his goals is simplify housing for people with disabilities.
His Simplified Disabled Housing plan he says, “Goes far beyond the methods of Universal Housing and the ADA, which limit the housing industry by giving builders a ridged set of one size fits all standards by which to build a new home.” He believes his SDH's patent-pending system individualizes homes by offering multiple styles, different heights, widths, depths, and left/right handedness options for the components of a home.
To achieve this goal, he advises people with disabilities to tour his soon to be built model home, in Las Vegas, fitted with colored markers. He believes these makers will allow them to determine the height, width and depth of the components of an individualized home by reaching out to the dot that best fits their needs then recording their choice on a check off sheet.
He argues logically and persuasively, “My system makes a home what it should be, an affordable and accessible sanctuary that adapts to you, instead of making you adapt to it. This new way of building a home will maximize an individual’s independence through greater accessibility.”
Lema designed a patent-pending color coded option package for licensing to the new housing industry that is visually managed, easy to implement and cost effective. This system will give home developers the ability to build a new, accessible home in mass production around disabled buyer’s accessible housing needs.
The other section of the market Lema is concerned with is our aging population and their families. He knows the need for accessible housing is real and only “growing with our aging baby boomers.”
He firmly believes that by offering the Simplified Disabled Housing system, a home developer gives the people with accessible-housing needs the same opportunities to purchase a home as other home buyers, at fair market values. Until now, having a custom built home or modifying after purchase (both expensive processes) and making due with current homes limited accessibility (accessibility limited by homes construction) were the only option available to families with accessibility needs.
He says proudly, “My intention is to build (in association with licensed builders) a minimum of 3,317,760 homes for people with accessibility needs, nation wide, over the next eight years bringing accessible housing into the mainstream.”
What motivated him to develop his system? He answers, “While working in the real estate industry, I was approached by a couple wishing to purchase a home. After previewing several homes a decision was made. The offer was written and submitted. What happened next proved to be what you might call a deal killer. The seller's agent informed me that the sale would be contingent on the seller's finding a home that was wheelchair accessible. Well, being relatively new in the business and full of enthusiasm, I set out to look for a home that was wheelchair accessible so my clients could purchase the home. I searched the database available and found no homes stating that they were wheelchair accessible. I went to new home developers and found they may be able to modify their single story model in an extremely limited way, for a substantial cost. Needless to say, my clients did not purchase that home. What did happen after that and similar situations, was that I realized there was a real need for affordable accessible housing that was not being properly addressed.”
His concern for people with disabilities living in an accessible environment goes beyond people using wheelchairs. He wants every person with a disability to have access to a home. He says, “As a result of volunteering at a Special Olympic event, I became aware on how unique we, as people, are. Until that time I thought only of building accessible homes that featured wheelchair accessibility. This narrow way of thinking would have left out people who do not use a wheelchair but still require a home that provides accessibility.
The competitive Lema is determined to achieve his goal.
