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Legislators seek funding for disabilities-assistance center in Ontario County
Heather Senison • Albany Bureau • March 24, 2009
ALBANY — While the Legislature is struggling to put the 2009-10 budget in place by April 1, two legislators are requesting a disabilities-assistance center in Ontario County to be added to the list of prospects for state funding.
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If the bill passes, the state would fund a center to give services to Ontario, Yates, and Wayne counties.
Independent living centers offer free services to people with disabilities, their families, and organizations that work with them.
The centers provide counseling, advocacy, and assistance with finding housing, registering to vote, and training to handle all other aspects of living an independent life.
They also assist families and others who help care for people with disabilities learn how to do so.
Assembly bill sponsor Brian Kolb, R-Canandaigua, said the measure is needed because “we identified the need and we’re trying to fill that need based on requests of those that advocate on behalf of the disabled population.”
There are currently 39 independent living centers in New York. In the 2008-09 budget, they received a total of $12.4 million, or roughly $320,000 each. The centers are regulated by the state Education Department.
The bill was drafted by Sen. Michael Nozzolio, R-Fayette, Seneca County. His spokesman said Nozzolio got the idea to write it from Chris Hilderbrant, director of advocacy for the Center for Disability Rights, a nonprofit, Rochester-based advocacy group for people with disabilities.
“We really were recognizing a lot of need in a lot of people for the types of support that an independent living center could provide,” Hilderbrant said.
Such services, he said, would include teaching the disabled how to navigate public-transportation systems, to provide resources and to connect people between Ontario, Yates and Wayne Counties.
“People need help finding out what is available,” Hilderbrant said.
The center would also advocate for more services for the counties from the state, such as developing the counties’ transportation system to further provide for people with disabilities, he said.
Hilderbrant also said there is an office in Geneva that could house the center.
It’s unclear when the bill will be acted on.