Tuesday, September 16, 2008

"Our homes, not nursing homes"

Press release from ADAPT:


ADAPT Challenges HUD, Dems, McCain on Disability/Housing Economic Crisis

Washington, D.C.---ADAPT wasted no time challenging multiple policymakers on the housing crisis for persons with disabilities who have low and extremely low incomes. After setting up a tent city at HUD headquarters just after 4 a.m., ADAPT sent 100 activists to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) offices in Washington, D.C., and another hundred to a Sen. John McCain campaign office in Arlington, VA. All three entities were presented with the ADAPT platform for affordable, accessible housing.

"The DNC was cordial, and they accepted our housing platform, as well as our invitation to visit 'DUH City,' which is HUD spelled backwards," said octonagerian Barb Toomer, ADAPT organizer from Utah."The career HUD staff that met with ADAPT told our people they had no authority to make decisions and had to wait for the administration or administrative appointees to make any decisions, so the meeting felt like a waste of time. Sen. John McCain's campaign staff not only refused to even look at our housing platform, they had eleven of us arrested by police who caused injuries to at least one arrestee."

ADAPT's housing platform points to America's20longstanding and still growing crisis in the availability of affordable, accessible integrated housing. Many people with disabilities live on benefits that are only 18% of the median income, a full 25% below the poverty level, and an amount that is less than the national average rent for a studio/efficiency apartment.

"The federal government is sending stimulus payments to middle class workers, and is providing economic relief for the mortgage crisis, and maybe even the bank crisis," said Dawn Russell, Denver ADAPT. "What about all of us who live on fixed incomes? If we can't afford the cost of housing, we'll end up on the street or being forced into nursing homes and institutions. What are the federal government, Congress, and the presidential candidates going to do to help us with our housing crisis?"

In its platform, ADAPT is asking for:
· 5000 new housing vouchers per year for 10 years, targeted to people transitioning out of nursing homes and other institutions;
· Twice as much funding for the construction of new housing stock that is affordable, accessible and integrated;
· Policies and procedures to track the new vouchers to assure they remain targeted to people with disabilities when the original user becomes ineligible or no longer needs the voucher;
· People with disabilities who reside in institutional settings to be recognized as "homeless."


ADAPT's DUH City will remain in operation twenty four hours a day until Thursday, September 18. The DUH City Times will be delivered daily to every member of Congress, and there will be daily DUH TV coverage on You Tube. Background information, real stories of real people and photos can all be accessed at
www.duhcity.org.

5 comments:

RADAR said...

Hi David,

I was very interested to read this post. Proper provision of accessible housing is a massive issue in Britain at the moment, with plans for massive house-building in the pipeline but little guarantee that they'll be built in a way that renders them easily adaptable for disabled users.

There's also large issues with the British social care system at the moment, and many people who don't want to be in homes are compelled to go to them for lack of accessible housing.

How the disability rights movement in Britain works with social and health care providers to tackle this and other issues is the subject of a debate RADAR is holding today. I've just put a post up which looks at relations between organisations run by disabled people and organisations "for" disabled people, and the historical controversy that causes, which may be of interest.

All the best

Aidan

Andrea Shettle, MSW said...

Apologies for posting off topic here -- I'm mostly leaving this comment because I wasn't able to find an email address to contact you directly.

I wanted to get in contact with you to see if you might be willing to copy/paste the following item from my blog into yours? I'm trying to encourage more people with disabilities, our loved ones, colleagues, and other allies to write emails to Obama to increase the visibility of disability issues among his staff. Letters are wanted not only from across the United States but also from around the world. The following Call to Action explains more about how and why:

http://wecando.wordpress.com/2008/11/07/disabilities-email-obama/

Mike Ward said...

Hi David,

Just had a read over your site whilst doing some research for the new Back Care Beds website and blog. I was wondering if you would email me your thoughts on nursing beds for our blog? I know you are probably busy however you write very well and I would like to publish your initial thoughts on this topic... Our web address is http://www.bed-adjustable.co.uk/
and the new site/blog should be launched in a couple of weeks...

Many thanks

Mike

john said...

This is more in response to the last reader post then the article. Re. beds, any particular brand you would wouold recommend? Specifically from the viewpoint of avoiding bed sores.
Thanks
John
http://www.jbconstructionltd.com

easy access baths said...

In England, it's not just lack of housing, the care system lacks the budget to care. It takes such a long time for social services assessments to result in subsequent funding for installation of suitable bathing facilities, that many people can no longer be independent and are forced to move into care homes for their own safety - the bathroom can be more dangerous than the kitchen!
And the quality of care in homes varies greatly.