HUD Secretary Comes to ADAPT with Commitments; American Hospital Association Agrees to Meet

For Immediate Release:
April 29, 2007

For information contact:
Bob Kafka (512) 431-4085
Marsha Katz (406) 544-9504
http://www.adapt.org

HUD Secretary Comes to ADAPT with Commitments; American Hospital
Association Agrees to Meet

Washington, D.C.--- This time around ADAPT didn't have to shut
down HUD headquarters, because as HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson stated,
"I came to you," when he and three members of his staff met with 500
members of ADAPT in their Washington, D.C., hotel. By the end of the
morning, Jackson had stated unequivocally that "Fair Housing is a right."
And he made a number of commitments to ADAPT, including;

* Informing ADAPT, before the September ADAPT action in Chicago,
on how many housing vouchers for persons with disabilities he has
recovered from the 58% loss in vouchers that the disability community
suffered due to a combination of federal budget cuts, and misappropriation
of vouchers by local entities that administer the voucher program in
communities across the country.

* Vowing to eliminate the "outrageous" level of discrimination in
housing against persons with disabilities. HUD recently reported that 40%
of the Fair Housing complaints filed with HUD are based on the "protected
class" of disability. This number surpasses, for the first time in
history, the percentage of complaints filed on the basis of race (39%).

* A promise to facilitate a meeting between ADAPT and Reps. Barney
Frank (D-MA) and Maxine Waters (D-CA). Frank is Chair of the House
Committee on Financial Services, and Waters is Chair of the Financial
Services Committee's Sub-committee on Housing and Community Opportunity.
This Committee and Sub-committee are responsible for legislation affecting
changes to the Section 811 program. ADAPT is calling for a restructuring
of the Sec. 811 housing program to provide affordable, accessible,
integrated housing, as well as increase the number of vouchers available
to persons with disabilities, both of which will require action by
Congress. Sec. 811 is the segregated housing program for persons with
disabilities. The segregated housing program for older persons is Sec.
202.

* Jackson committed to work with ADAPT on implementing ADAPT's
Access Across America Program, which would provide housing vouchers to
persons with disabilities in nursing homes and ICFMRs that, combined with
Money Follows the Person and previously existing initiatives in the
states, will get people out of nursing homes and into affordable,
accessible, integrated housing in their own communities.

* A promise to meet with ADAPT three times a year, with the next
meeting most likely occurring in Chicago during the next ADAPT action,
September 8-13.

"ADAPT is pleased that Sec. Jackson came to us, and we are
cautiously optimistic at this point," said Cassie James, Philadelphia
ADAPT Organizer. "His own personal experience with discrimination gives
him a window into the unconscionable discrimination in obtaining
affordable, accessible, integrated housing that is experienced by people
with disabilities all over America. We look forward to the Secretary
keeping his commitments and partnering with us to improve the current sad
state of affairs."

In other action on Tuesday, ADAPT took over the building that
houses the American Hospital Association (AHA), ultimately receiving a
commitment from AHA top leadership to meet with 15 ADAPT members in the
next 30 days. ADAPT is demanding that the AHA endorse the Community Choice
Act (S 799, H.R. 1621); work with ADAPT to develop a hospital discharge
protocol that will steer people into community services, not institutional
services; put ADAPT on the agenda of the next AHA conference; and finally,
write a letter to all AHA member hospitals encouraging them to make
discharge referrals that do not inappropriately segregate and
institutionalize people with disabilities, thus complying with the U.S.
Supreme Court Olmstead decision.

Commented Gene Spinning Rochester ADAPT, "Hospitals should not be
feeder systems for the nursing home industrial complex, and we expect AHA
to take a lead in reforming the all too common practice of treating us
like cash cows and making automatic referrals at discharge to nursing
homes without even exploring what's available in the community."

On Wednesday, ADAPT will meet with Mike Hudson, Chair of the
Republican National Committee. ADAPT will also deliver Community Choice
Act materials to every member of Congress. Included in the materials is a
ten minute DVD compiled from the testimony about the horrors of life in a
nursing home that was delivered before a national panel in Nashville
during ADAPT's spring 2006 action.


###
FOR MORE INFORMATION on ADAPT visit our website at http://www.adapt.org/