1) What’s Happening in the Nation’s Capital?
Act Immediately: Call Key Senators Today, August 2 before 5:45pm Eastern!
2) National News
CMS Announces $2.25 Billion in Grants to Extend Money Follows the Person Rebalancing Demonstration
One Thousand Activists March in Seventh Annual Disability Pride Parade in Chicago
HUD Fair Housing Report Finds Disability Discrimination Tops List of Complaints… Again
3) State News
Center for Disability Rights of Rochester under Attack: Tell Maggie Brooks to Restore the CDPAS Contract!
Schwarzenegger Declares January 23 "Ed Roberts Day" in California!
Missouri Returns Baby to Parents with Disabilities after Months of Blatant Discrimination
4) Announcements and Additional Resources
Editorial: Detention and the Disabled
Council of State Governments Releases Findings on State Disability Policy
Act Immediately: Call Key Senators Today, August 2 before 5:45pm Eastern!
Source: ADAPT
Here’s our chance to save in-home services in our states! Today the Senate will hold a roll-call vote to continue increases in the Federal Medical Assistance Percentages (FMAP) at 5:45pm EDT!
Keep calling the following key Republican and Democratic senators! Ask they vote YEA on Amendment 4567 to H.R. 1586.
- Senator Mitch McConnell Phone: (202) 224-2541
- Blanche Lincoln (202) 224-4843
- Mark Pryor (202) 224-2353
- Senator Olympia Snowe Phone: (202) 224-5344 or Toll Free: (800) 432-1599
- Senator Ben Nelson Phone: (202) 224-6551
- Senator Susan Collins Phone: (202) 224-2523
Our in-home services can be saved! Matches of federal Medicaid dollars is in, if we get this passed! Time is of the essence because the Senate is due to recess around August 9.
Take control of your in-home services! Tell Congress to act now and extend more Medicaid funding until June 30, 2011 for people with disabilities across the nation!
CMS Announces $2.25 Billion in Grants to Extend Money Follows the Person Rebalancing Demonstration
Source: HHS
Americans with disabilities will have more help to live independently and remain in their homes and communities instead of in institutional long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes, through the availability of $2.25 billion in grants to states. The new grant solicitation issued today by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) encourages states not yet part of the Money Follows the Person Rebalancing (MFP) Demonstration to apply for grant funds.
With passage of the Affordable Care Act, states already participating in the demonstration are afforded the opportunity to expand and extend their MFP grant program.
Due to the HHS Community Living Initiative, and resources made available through the Affordable Care Act, more people with disabilities and chronic care needs will have greater opportunities to live in their communities and achieve their goals. "The Money Follows the Person Rebalancing Demonstration has been critical to our efforts to deliver on the promise of the Americans with Disabilities Act and expand access to community living services," said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
In a letter sent to Governors, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Secretary Sebelius encouraged states to take advantage of the numerous community initiatives within the Affordable Care Act and leverage those options through active participation in the MFP demonstration. Read More.
One Thousand Activists March in Seventh Annual Disability Pride Parade in Chicago
Source: Windy City Times
Fighting early bad weather and a few down CTA stops, the seventh annual Disability Pride Parade kicked off July 24 to well over one thousand attendees. Running from the corner of Van Buren and Dearborn to Daley Plaza, the Disability Pride Parade is held each year in order to raise awareness for disabled persons of all different races, creeds and sexual orientations.
"A while back, a woman named Sarah Triano wrote an essay and won an award of $10,000," stated president of the Disability Pride Association, Janice Stashwick. "Her vision was to use that as feed money to hold a parade where disabled people could feel proud about themselves, so she turned to the gay community for help."
This year, the grand marshal of the parade was LGBT- and disability-rights activist Eli Clare. Clare is a noted lecturer and author of the book Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation.
The theme of this year's march, "Pride Revolution," an idea that the disabled community could join in support of other discriminated groups, particularly interested Clare and, according to a few event organizers, echoed the outreach between the disabled and LGBT community of the first such parade.
"It has become clear to me that pride isn't simply about one individual, it is about the entire community," said Clare. "It is an incredible honor to be surrounded by so many great people at an event like this one." Read More.
HUD Fair Housing Report Finds Disability Discrimination Tops List of Complaints… Again
Source: National Mortgage Professional Magazine
The U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) has released the Obama Administration's first annual report on the state of fair housing in America. HUD's Fiscal Year 2009 annual State of Fair Housing Report highlights the agency's progress in enforcing the Fair Housing Act, identifies challenges that remain, and demonstrates its commitment to acting now to end housing discrimination.
The report, which covers the last full fiscal year of HUD's complaint investigations and fair housing activities, was released during HUD's National Fair Housing Policy Conference in New Orleans. The report shows that discrimination based on a person's disability status continues to account for the largest-single category of complaints. Of the 10,242 complaints filed with HUD and its fair housing partners during fiscal year 2009, 44 percent alleged disability discrimination, while 31 percent alleged discrimination based on race, and 20 percent based on family status. The number and type of complaints received are consistent with the previous two years. Read More.
Center for Disability Rights of Rochester under Attack: Tell Maggie Brooks to Restore the CDPAS Contract!
The Center for Disability Rights is under attack by the Monroe County Executive, Maggie Brooks. Without warning, on July 22nd, CDR received a terse, 5 sentence letter informing us of the contract termination with no explanation included. All of our CDPAS consumers received a letter the same day telling them that the county is terminating its contract with CDR and that they have until just August 1st to choose from one of five for-profit agencies for their Consumer Directed Personal Assistance.
The next day, CDR received from a friend in the local media, a copy of a three page letter from the County Executive to the media. The letter was filled with blatant falsehoods mixed with misunderstandings of the roles of CDR and the county in the CDPAS program. Read CDR’s letter to Maggie Brooks debunking her allegations against CDR (PDF).
After identifying seven of the 12 people who were allegedly neglected, CDR held a press conference on Wednesday and six of these consumers stated that they were NOT neglected and that they wanted to stay with CDR. The seventh provided a written statement. This clearly shows that Monroe County’s allegations against CDR are FALSE. Although this has been mentioned in the media, key issues are not being raised or addressed:
- Monroe County is not explaining why CDR’s program is still being shut down when most of the people who were investigated are actively refuting claims that they were neglected.
- Monroe County is not explaining why a successful program run by a disability-led, consumer controlled Independent Living Center is being dismantled and given to for-profit entities.
- Monroe County is not explaining how it makes financial sense to INCREASE Medicaid spending by $2.1 million when concerns about neglect have been refuted.
- Monroe County is not explaining why it continues to refuse to acknowledge the voices of the people with disabilities who want to stay and let them make their own choices.
Videos of the full statements of the CDR consumers refuting the county’s allegations are here: http://www.youtube.com/user/cdrnys. You can watch them for yourself and then decide who is not telling the truth. Please share these and make them go viral. Many more documents available on CDR’s website at www.cdrnys.org
Our consumers and their attendants have been thrown into chaos and Ms. Brooks refuses to talk to them. Nearly 300 consumers are in danger of losing their attendants and possibly their services outright. One consumer has been placed into a nursing facility “where it is expected she will be forced to remain”.
This is an attack on Independent Living. This is an attack on our Olmstead right to live in the most integrated setting. This is an attack on consumer choice. This is an attack on disability rights and activism.
In response, consumers, supporters and staff have camped out in front of the County Building on Main Street in Rochester. We have been out there 24/7 since Monday (which happened to be the 20h anniversary of the ADA) and have pledged to continue our vigil.
We need your help! Take Action: Call Maggie Brooks!
Call Maggie Brooks and urge her to restore CDR’s contract for the sake of the hundreds of people who like their services and want to continue them. We have a toll free number people can use to call County Executive Maggie Brooks: 866-324-0787.
Then ask at least two other people to do the same thing. Be respectful, but be firm. Her phone should not stop ringing! Monroe County folks are the same people who used the R-word. Now they are talking ABOUT us, and refuse to talk WITH us. Please help us make our voices heard!
Schwarzenegger Declares January 23 "Ed Roberts Day" in California!
Ed Roberts, often called the father of the disability rights movement, joined the likes of environmental activist John Muir, gay rights activist Harvey Milk and former President Ronald Reagan last Monday when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill declaring Jan. 23 "Ed Roberts Day" in California.
The bill, first introduced by state Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Oakland, marks every Jan. 23 "as having special significance," in honor of the late UC Berkeley alumnus.
Roberts, who became paralyzed from the neck down after contracting polio at age 14, was the first permanently wheelchair-using student to attend the campus, where he soon after became active in the disability rights movement in 1962. He died of natural causes in 1995 at age 56.
Last Monday, Schwarzenegger also signed a bill proclaiming every Feb. 6 "Ronald Reagan Day" in honor of the late governor and president. "Imagine a Cal alumni on the same day being elevated to that level of a president," said Paul Hippolitus, director of the campus's Disabled Students' Program. "That's what those days are reserved for. Really powerful historic figures."
After teaching political science on campus for six years and founding several organizations for disabled people's rights, such as the local Center for Independent Living, Roberts was appointed director of the California Department of Rehabilitation in 1975 by Gov. Jerry Brown. Read More.
Missouri Returns Baby to Parents with Disabilities after Months of Blatant Discrimination
Source: The Kansas City Star, by Lee Hill Kavanaugh
Fifty-seven days after she was born, Mikaela Sinnett was home for the first time Tuesday with her parents, Erika Johnson and Blake Sinnett of Independence. State officials had worried they were unable to care for her.
But for 57 days she couldn’t keep her newborn close, smell her baby’s breath, feel her downy hair. The state took away her 2-day-old infant into protective custody — because Johnson and Mikaela’s father are both blind. No allegations of abuse, just a fear that the new parents would be unable to care for the child.
On Tuesday, Johnson still couldn’t stop crying, although Mikaela was back in her arms. “We never got the chance to be parents,” she said. “We had to prove that we could.”
Tuesday, she and Blake Sinnett knew their baby was finally coming home to their Independence apartment, but an adjudication hearing was scheduled for the afternoon on whether the state would stay involved in the rearing of the baby. Then from a morning phone call to their attorney, they learned that the state was dismissing their case.
“Every minute that has passed that this family wasn’t together is a tragedy. A legal tragedy and a moral one, too,” said Amy Coopman, their attorney. “How do you get 57 days back?” Read More.
Editorial: Detention and the Disabled
Source: New York Times
Editor’s Note: This editorial has not been edited to reflect people first language.
The Department of Homeland Security has been working to clean up the immigration-justice system it inherited from the Bush administration, a sprawling detention-and-deportation operation plagued by overcrowding, mistreatment and shocking medical neglect. Ongoing scrutiny from legal experts and human-rights advocates shows how much work remains.
A new report from Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union lays out in unsettling detail the burdens faced by a particularly vulnerable group: immigrants with mental disabilities.
The immigration-justice system is notoriously unjust and difficult to navigate. Noncitizens have no right to an appointed lawyer, for example, and most end up fending for themselves in immigration court.
For the mentally ill or disabled, often unable to understand the charges and punishment they face, the experience is even worse, with prolonged detentions and removal without a fair hearing — “deportation by default,” in the report’s words — all too common. Defendants who cannot represent themselves in court — and cannot afford a lawyer or find a family member — end up being represented by an official of Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting as a “custodian.” Some defendants, unsurprisingly, end up in limbo, detained but not deported while awaiting a hearing that may not happen. Read More.
Council of State Governments Releases Survey and Findings on State Disability Policy
On the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Council of State Governments (CSG) released a comprehensive survey of state policy related to disabilities, featuring nearly 149 different entries from 31 states, in an effort to help spread awareness of these programs from across the nation. Challenges and issues facing disability are numerous. State and federal governments continue to struggle developing policies surrounding housing, employment, and independent living. This document seeks to provide policymakers with information on policies that they can pursue in their own states.
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August 2, 2010