ADAPT Action Reports

thumbnails are linked to higher resolution photos Alphonso Jackson addresses ADAPT. Cassie and Jackson. Alphonso Jackson and Bob Liston. Karen Greebauhn. Kathy Curcio. Taking the doors at the AHA. AHA foyer packed with activists. Activists packed in to the elevators at AHA. Dawn Russell. Activists packed down the hall. Toby Tylor. Blocking the parking. Linda Anthony. Ben Barrett.

Secretary Alphonso Jackson Visits ADAPT and ADAPT Visits the American Hospital Association.

ADAPT Action Report: Tuesday, May 1, 2007.

By Tim Wheat

Alphonso Jackson. (WASHINGTON DC) ADAPT gained ground today, confronting two players in the campaign against institutional bias. US Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Alfonso Jackson faced up to ADAPT, promising an end to housing discrimination. The American Hospital Association (AHA), on the other hand, needed some ADAPT-style persuading before they agreed to a conversation about discharging people with disabilities into nursing homes rather than their own homes.

HUD recently reported that 40% of the Fair Housing complaints filed with HUD are based on the "protected class" of disability. This number surpasses, for the first time in history, the percentage of complaints filed on the basis of race (39%). Sec. Alphonso Jackson agreed to recover housing vouchers lost to budget cuts and to broker a meeting between Congress members on key committees. The Secretary also vowed to eliminate the "outrageous" level of discrimination in housing against persons with disabilities and he said he would work with and meet regularly with ADAPT.

We are committed to work with you and we will do everything in our power to make sure you have affordable accessible integrated housing options in this country. Each time you've come, or your executive committee has come to meet with me. Today I made the decision that I would come to meet with you. Because whether you realize it or not, we have a common purpose. See I grew up in Dallas Texas, in a very segregated environment -- I know what discrimination is and I understand the long reach of discrimination. And if you understand discrimination, you understand the struggle you all are going through today.

You know, March 1965 on the E. Pettis Bridge -- I was there. I have the dog bite in my left leg still today.

Fair Housing is a right.

The Secretary's comments were greeted with applause and cheers, but the positive mood of the crowd was cautious optimism. Sec. Jackson has keep his commitments with ADAPT, but not without constant pressure from ADAPT. Activists held "WANTED POSTERS" with Sec. Jackson's photo. They hoped to tear the poster up as a demonstration of faith that the pressure was no longer necessary. Cassie James, however, asked the crowd to hang-on to the poster for a little while and see if Sec. Jackson can keep the promises that he made.

Two hours after the end of the visit by Sec. Jackson, the whole of ADAPT rushed the doors of the American Hospital Association (AHA) in downtown Washington DC, while a second group blocked the subterranean parking garage for the building. ADAPT crowded into the building and blocked traffic demanding that the AHA check the discharges of people with disabilities to nursing homes.

Lupe Vasquez. "I wanted to go home but the doctor said that I should go to the nursing home for just one week to get better," said Lupe Vasquez of Austin Texas. "As soon as I got there, I wanted to leave, but two weeks later I was still in the nursing home I never got any rehab or anything. They did not get me out of bed, or even reposition me, I was getting bedsores."

Dale Reid MS/APN, and Advanced Practice Nurse from Denver explained that people with disabilities can live in the community for years, but if they go to the hospital for something typical, they may be deemed "not competent" to live in the community, and end up in an institution. The hospital discharge social worker or case manager may feel that because of a person's disability they cannot live in the community ignoring the variety of home and community-based services and years of experience of people with disabilities.

"I believe people with disabilities are being tracked into nursing homes," Reid said.

ADAPT asked the AHA to support the Community Choice Act of 2007 (S 799 and HR 1621), to send a letter to member hospitals to ensure that referrals complied with federal law, to develop a protocol so that a discharge to an institution will not discriminate against people with disabilities and finally ADAPT asked to present at the AHA national conference on this issue.

Ben Barrett of Wisconsin was discharged from a hospital using a wheelchair, however the hospital social worker insisted that he spend the winter in a nursing home because his home had no wheelchair ramp. Ben organized his friends to build him a $750.00 ramp and was not discharged to a nursing home.