The Roving Activist’s Blog

The State of Fair Housing Conference
Thursday, October 11th, was a cold, blustery day, but that didn’t stop seven Rochester ADAPT members from attending the 6th Annual State of Fair Housing Conference. This year’s Keynote Speaker was none other than Kim Kendrick, Assistant Secretary of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Anita Cameron, and Terrie Lincoln, Systems Advocates for the Center for Disability Rights (CDR) and the Regional Center for Independent Living (RCIL), respectively, were registered to attend the event, but brought along a few friends to help deliver a message to HUD. Kim Kendrick was supposed to have given ADAPT the numbers of Housing Choice and other vouchers earmarked for people with disabilities that HUD had reclaimed after they were put into the general pool of vouchers. Though Kim had agreed to meet with ADAPT for a few minutes after her presentation, Rochester ADAPT felt that conference attendees should have the opportunity to ponder for themselves, what does HUD REALLY know about Fair Housing?

While Anita and Terrie were attending the presentations, Debbie Bonomo, Jennifer Neufeglise, Shelly Perrin, and the Taggart twins, Pat and Pam, begin passing out leaflets to conference members and organizers. Conference members began entering with telltale pieces of bright orange paper amongst the conference materials. Conference organizers tried to confiscate the fliers from individuals, and when one of the fliers founds its way to Kim, there were whispered apologies all around.

By the time that the lecture ended, Rochester Police had surrounded our fearless crew, and were in the process of escorting them from the property. No one knew who called the police; all of a sudden, they were there demanding to know who was in charge. When Debbie responded, “we all are”, she was told, “you must leave, NOW!” Since the rest of the gang was aware of the plan to try to get them back in for the meeting with Kim, they left. The cops then tried to get Anita and Terrie to leave, even after they explained that they were registered. Suddenly, a woman appeared and told the police that they were with the conference. The woman knew some of the Rochester ADAPTers and was gleefully wondering was there going to be a protest.

What do you do when you’re thrown out, but still have a bunch of flyers left to hand out?

Educate everyone!

The crew was escorted off of the hotel property, at a nearby bus stop. They not only gave flyers to passersby, but to folks who were getting on the bus. The Taggarts even got on each bus and handed out flyers! It was amazing that the bus drivers even allowed this, but they did!

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After Kim’s presentation, where she threw around lots of statistics (40% of the ten thousand Fair Housing discrimination complaints from the state of New York were from people with disabilities!), Terrie and Anita waited to see if she would still meet with ADAPT. There were people crowding around Kim, and it was difficult to get through them, so they waited by the only door in or out of the room. After some time, Terrie’s Lift Line ride came, as did everyone else’s. Anita stayed behind to continue to wait. Finally, Julia Day, with the State Division of Human Rights, stopped by to say hello to Anita. Not being shy about asking for help, Anita asked Julia to ask Kim to come over. Julie came back with a message from Kim that she didn’t want a bunch of yelling in her face. HA!!

Soon after, Kim came over and sat down. She was quite unhappy about the flyers and said that it was unfair of us to slam her with the flyers after she had agreed to meet with us. Anita’s response was, “Ok, I understand. Now about those numbers…”

The meeting lasted about twenty minutes. Kim explained that she didn’t have any numbers, that there were other departments that did. She also suggested getting the numbers from the local Public Housing Authorities. Anita countered that Secretary Jackson charged Kim with getting that information. She went on to remind Kim that the biggest barrier to community living for people with disabilities transitioning from nursing homes and other institutions was the lack of affordable, accessible housing. Anita went on to say that mouthing platitudes such as “I feel your pain”, and “you’re preaching to the choir” is nothing but hot air when HUD doesn’t keep its promises. She advised Kim to “light a fire under the behinds of those staff who are supposed to be getting the information on those numbers to you, because they’re making you look bad, and ADAPT will not back down until you and HUD deliver on your promise.”

Kim then stated that she would call Anita tomorrow, October 12th, whether she had the numbers or not. “If I don’t call, my assistant, Deandra will call you.” As of now, the end of the workday of October 12th, there has been no call for either Kim or Deandra. Perhaps, ADAPT will have to jog her memory – ADAPT style!

This entry was posted on Friday, October 12th, 2007 at 5:57 pm and is filed under Activism, ADAPT, HUD and Access Across America, Rochester. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.