ADAPT (American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today) is a National Disabilities Rights Groups that has been working on the inequality in the Nation’s Long Term Care Systems since 1990. The system as it stands is biased towards Nursing Homes and Other Institutions for People with Disabilities. Recently, ADAPT had a major victory with Money Follow the Person which passed earlier this year and was signed by President Bush. The Program will allow people to receive services in their own home instead of nursing homes or other institutions. Requests for Proposals have gone out to the States and now each State must submit a Letter of Intent with the Proposal due November 1, 2006. Plans are underway to roll MFP Funds to the Stets beginning January 1, 2007.
One of ADAPT’s biggest obstacles has been the lack of affordable, accessible and integrated housing. Over the years, Congress and Housing and Urban Development helped stigmatize and reduce Section 8 Vouchers to nearly nothing. To very low income People with Disabilities, we have never been a priority of HUD’s and without housing; we face going back into the institutions awe fought so hard to get out of.
We have tried meeting with HUD, namely Secretary Alphonso Jackson and asked for a housing program called Access Across America Vouchers which would target People with Disabilities in Shelters and in Institutions. The problem getting these vouchers to people has been the Public Housing Authorities. Whether it is getting them to apply for the vouchers or target under utilized vouchers for People coming out of Nursing Homes or other Institutions, we have had little luck.
Due to under utilization by many Housing Authorities, 15% of Housing Choice Vouchers are returned to HUD. These vouchers could, at the Secretary’s Discretion, be earmarked for People with Disabilities who are coming out of Institutions under the MFP Program. Secretary Jackson said that he could write a letter to the Housing Authorities and ask them, if they would consider us a local preference for these returned vouchers. That isn’t good enough.
There are agencies that could act as intermediaries, namely Public Housing Authorities Directors Association (PHADA) and The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities (CLPHA). These Non-Profit Groups are made up of Housing Authority Directors. Surely, they could at their meetings get together and address the issue of applying for these Vouchers and earmarking under utilized vouchers for People Coming Out of Institutions. A letter sent out by the head of these organizations in partnership with HUD should carry some weight.
It is not a question of can or can’t; it is about political will. Certainly HUD has shown in the past that it is not a friend of the disability community. They never enforced the 5% Rule under 504, they have never responded in a timely manner to complaints made. We need the Housing Authorities to work with HUD to help ADAPT in freeing our people from institutions.
This is a matter of People’s lives. People who want to come out of institutions are being told they can’t now not for the lack of community services but for the lack of housing. There are people at risk going into institutions because they can’t live in their inaccessible homes as well. It all leads to a revolving door of People with Disabilities ending up in Institutions because there is now where for them to go.
In Philadelphia, a man named Tom, 43 years old, has been waiting to get out of Care Pavilion in Philadelphia, PA. He has been ready to leave the nursing home and live on his own, in his own home with Community Services like Attendant Care in place. However, he is still waiting to find housing. He has been on the Section 8 Waiting List for well over a year. He is ineligible for what is called “affordable housing” because he has an income less than $15,000. This so called Affordable Housing built for low income people is out of his reach. With a Section 8 Voucher, he could be free.
Dorian, a Housing Coordinator at Liberty Resources, Inc. says he sees people like Tom fall through the cracks all the time. So many people are frustrated, waiting to get out, he says. “All they do all day is sit in the halls or watch TV. It isn’t any kind of real life. There is supports out there but you can’t get the housing.”
The irony is that even though a Federal Law, Section 504, requires all housing money built with public money to be at least 5% accessible, many developers complain they can’t fill the units. It isn’t because there is a lack of people to occupy it; People on Very Low Incomes cannot afford “affordable housing” aimed at People who make at least 30% of their Area Median Income. For People with Disabilities, it is next to impossible. We need Section 8 Vouchers to get people to transition back into their communities.
“People with Disabilities are forgotten and ignored. We saw what happened to people in one nursing home in New Orleans, left behind by workers and left to drown, said Cassie James, an activist with ADAPT. “So many of the people with disabilities were displaced and put in nursing homes there. These are people who lived in the community. Will they ever get back there?”
Ultimately, it costs more money to keep people institutionalized. And in more than just money, it costs people their dignity, their freedom and their lives. Can we really afford to throw anyone away? Yet, each day, we allow People with Disabilities remain in these institutions where they are robbed of life, dignity and hope.
Jimmi Shrode
