(Washington D.C.)“We want Kaiser!” echoed throughout the Hyatt on Capitol hill as over 400 activists took over the hotel lobby and elevator’s demanding a meeting with the Executive Director of The Public Housing Authorities Directors Association: Timothy G. Kaiser. ADAPT demanded and got that meeting and additionally secured a meeting with the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities (CLPHA) in order to get people out of expensive institutions and into their own homes.
ADAPT’s “No More Excuses” campaign began today with the largest grassroots direct-action group of people with disabilities aiming at the issue of housing. People with disabilities have been cut off and put out-of-sight in nursing homes and institutions for too long. Nationwide Housing Authorities have the opportunity to help remedy the social policy blunder, so ADAPT activists demanded change and brought suggestions on how positive change can be accomplished.
Action on the housing issue is essential due to ADAPT’s success in getting Money Follows the Person (MFP) legislation passed this year. MFP will allow the money that was spent on a person in an institution to follow them into and help them to move to the community.
“One of our biggest obstacles,” said Jimmi Shrode of Philadelphia ADAPT, “has been the lack of affordable, accessible and integrated housing.”
The threshold to get into reasonable housing makes it difficult for institutionalized Americans to return home or get out of the institution. The grassroots experience of ADAPT, actually working to help people to get out of nursing homes, points to answering the simple question of “where will you live?” ADAPT’s proposal Access Across America is a direct answer to that question and a liberating call for our social policy to correct the isolation and confinement of people with disabilities.
Early this morning, ADAPT members were involved in training sessions at their Capitol Hill hotel and gathered to leave before 10 a.m. The group chanted as the long line of 500 activists snaked across the mall and into the business district. The main body of the group turned east on “E” street, but a group of about 50 broke off and headed west.
The larger group was targeting the Legislative Affairs Convention of PHADA held at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill. The Public Housing Authorities Directors Association or PHADA was founded in 1979 and represents the professional administrators of approximately 1,900 housing authorities throughout the United States. The housing authorities PHADA represents have the ability to link housing vouchers with Medicaid-eligible people transitioning to the community from shelters, nursing homes and other institutions. ADAPT is asking that PHADA endorse the proposal “Access Across America” to assist people with disabilities moving out of institutions, to increase the supply of accessible units and to make modifications to inaccessible units.
The single-file line of ADAPT turned off the street and into the underground parking garage of the Hyatt. The garage entrance became the accessible route for hundreds of activists to pack the lobby of the hotel where the PHADA Legislative Forum was taking place. At 11:00 a.m. with the lobby filled with activists, the chant rose up: “We want Kaiser!”
Other activists put up signs on the stairs and landings of the posh hotel lobby, while anxious Hyatt staff worked to take down signs. Many ADAPT members held a long banner that read: Affordable, accessible, integrated housing. The banner was so long, it had to meander through the crowd and wind around the escalator. Metro Police stepped in to negotiate with PHADA, and before noon Timothy G. Kaiser, and Policy Analyst Jim Armstrong of PHADA agreed to a September 25 meeting with ADAPT.
Just before news of the victory with PHADA, word spread that the team at CLPHA would be arrested. The smaller ADAPT group had successfully made it to the ninth floor offices at 1250 Eye Street and packed in from one end of the hall to the other.
“The staff here at CLPHA were not happy to see us,” said Nancy Salandra of Philadelphia ADAPT. “They had an attitude and were lecturing us like they were the oppressed little guys and we were worse than the dirt on their shoes.”
In true ADAPT fashion, when the office staff became a barrier, like “water around a stone,” the negotiations flowed past the office employees. CLPHA agents would not provide a phone number for the director; however, Imaginative activists linked up with a resourceful individual in Kansas who got the number. CLPHA Board President, Sandra B. Henriquez, Administrator of the Boston Housing Authority agreed to an October 4 meeting.
At about 1:30 the two ADAPT groups linked back up at the National Mall as they headed back to the hotel.
“The power of ADAPT – I love it,” said Ronnie Patrick of Chicago. “I love when we split up and have an extra surprise target.”
Most of ADAPT met for a couple of hours to get acquainted and deconstruct the day’s events. A dozen ADAPT activist met with a delegation from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. The meeting grew out of a regional ADAPT action this past summer. ADAPT members had disrupted a Bishops Conference and confronted them about support for dignity and choice for people with disabilities. The Bishops agreed to send a delegation to speak to ADAPT.
Kathy Curran, Jan Benton, Lisa Smith and Jerry Freehold gathered in a small conference room with ADAPT for about 40 minutes. Cassie James, fresh from the success at CLPHA facilitated the meeting. Janice McGrane of ADAPT, and a nun, began the meeting with a prayer.
“I get attendant services,” said Ms McGrane, “they are vital in my life. I think the church has started the ministry [to people with disabilities] and I am with ADAPT because it is crucial that people leave nursing homes.”
The delegation ended their stay by speaking to the large group of ADAPT gathered in the ballroom downstairs.
More ADAPT Action tomorrow.
