Sunday began early for me. I went to the new people’s meeting for a bit, then, went to the Color leader’s meeting, which I helped to facilitate. We then got ready for the ADAPT Housing Forum, hosted by Chicago ADAPT members, Beto, and Darryl, as well as Eleanor Smith, from Atlanta. She started Concrete Change, a sister organization that focuses on Visitability and accessble housing. Cassie James, from Philadelphia, also hosted the event.
About 30 of us presented testimony about being institutionalized due to a lack of affordable, accessible, integrated housing. I testified on behalf of Steve Menz, one of our ADAPT members from Rochester, and told the story of Tim Lucas, who was unceremoniously dumped out of a nursing home with nowhere to go, and placed on an emergency basis in housing that was not only inaccessible, but unsafe. he was forced to return to the nursing home until safe, accessible housing could be found. I also read testimony from Anthony Griggs, who languished in a nursing home for almost three years until he could find affordable, accessible housing.
We were directing our testimony to Kim Kendrick, Assistant Secretary of Fair Housing, at HUD, and Paula Blunt. Of course, they told us that “we feel your pain”, and “you’re preaching to the choir”, but they didn’t step up to the plate to give us the numbers of lost Housing Choice vouchers that were set aside for people with disabilities coming out of institutions. Frankly, I’m getting rather tired of it all. I think that HUD has forgotten our power. Perhaps, they need to be reminded.
[...] LA’s Homeless Blog wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptWe then got ready for the ADAPT Housing Forum, hosted by Chicago ADAPT members, Beto, and Darryl, as well as Eleanor Smith, from Atlanta. She started Concrete Change, a sister organization that focuses on Visitability and accessble … [...]