April 22, 2012

UPDATE: HUD SECRETARY DONOVAN VISITS ADAPT TO AFFIRM COMMITMENT TO AFFORDABLE, ACCESSIBLE, INTEGRATED HOUSING

Washington, DC—Today, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan visited a meeting of hundreds of members of ADAPT, the national grassroots disability rights direct action organization focused on access to community living.  Accompanying Donovan was well-regarded HUD Deputy Secretary Estelle Richman, who has a long working relationship with ADAPT in Pennsylvania where she worked before joining the Obama administration.  The purpose of the visit was to affirm HUD’s commitment to affordable, accessible, integrated housing for people with disabilities, especially those seeking to re-integrate into the community after living in nursing homes or institutions.

Richman spent time talking about her commitment to affordable, accessible, integrated housing.  She emphasized the need for both advocacy and action.
She is very willing to continue talking with ADAPT about what HUD can do to increase housing opportunities for people coming out of nursing homes.  She also emphasized the importance of housing opportunities in both urban and rural areas.  Her introduction of her boss, Secretary Donovan, was followed by an ADAPT welcome of resounding chants about affordable, accessible, integrated housing.

Donovan thanked Richman and the members of ADAPT for their constant work to figure out housing solutions, and recognized the sacrifice that many ADAPTers make in traveling to DC to advocate.  He made it clear that our protests at HUD have been heard at the central office, and that he and the administration want to partner with ADAPT.  He stated that he appreciated ADAPT’s forthrightness and noted the struggle of the disability movement over the years—the fight for access, for services, for housing and more.

Donovan repeatedly affirmed the importance of Olmstead implementation, and the need to provide community living choices so that people with disabilities would not be forced into institutions. He stressed the importance of Money Follows the Person in the states, and mentioned the gains in community living opportunities created by the Affordable Care Act.  Donovan then talked about the gains in creating affordable, accessible housing units—2500 in this year alone.  He referred to gains made in home modifications and the need for greater fair housing enforcement.  He mentioned that to date $40 million had been set aside for home choice vouchers and that institutional living is four times more costly than community living.

Donovan then announced that in order to boost fair housing and ADA compliance at Public Housing Authorities, each would have on-site reviews to ensure that housing would be accessible and open to people with disabilities.

While ADAPTers appreciated that Donovan and Richman took their time to visit with the group in person, they were ready with a fusillade of questions regarding the linkage of housing for people with disabilities and services, the long-standing lack of vouchers, and the difficulty in getting states to implement Money Follows the Person in a meaningful way. Clearly, much work remains to be done, though ADAPT applauds the members who worked with HUD to bring this meeting about.  A good start to ADAPT’s National Action week and building up the pressure to FREE OUR PEOPLE!

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