For Immediate release: August 20, 2007
For Information Contact:
Bob Kafka (512) 431-4085
Marsha Katz (406) 544-9504
Gary Arnold (773) 425-2536
On a "Mission from ADAPT," Disability Activists Blow into the Windy City to Attack Segregation
(Chicago, IL) More than 500 ADAPT activists from around the country will
converge in Chicago September 8th-13th to take action against a crisis in
Illinois that is the poster child for a larger national problem. The crisis is
directly caused by a record of bad decisions made by Illinois state officials,
and the institutional bias built into the way the nation's long term care system
is funded.
ADAPT will assure that Gov. Blagojevich knows that his plans to reopen a state
institution for persons with developmental disabilities and his lack of support
for Money Follows the Person legislation are actions of segregation and in
violation of the U.S. Supreme Court's Olmstead decision. ADAPT will also
challenge the Illinois Congressional delegation to take a leadership role
nationally in eliminating the institutional bias so people with disabilities and
older Americans can live at home with dignity.
Currently, Illinois ranks 41st in the nation for providing the community-based
services that will allow disabled and older citizens to stay in their own homes.
Illinois' long record of being in the bottom ten states puts it among the worst
when it comes to human rights in general and disability rights in particular.
"It turns my stomach to know that my state, historically a home of civil rights
in America for people of color, is the same state that is one of the worst civil
rights performers in regard to people with disabilities," said Chicago native
Larry Biondi, an organizer with Chicago ADAPT. "I'm ashamed of Illinois' record
of institutionalizing people with disabilities. Right now there almost 20,000
people who have said they want to get out of Illinois' nursing homes- nursing
homes they never wanted to go into in the first place. But they were forced to
go there by the institutional bias in Medicaid funding, and the state's failure
to act in accordance with federal law- law that clearly states that people
should receive services in '...the most integrated setting,' which is clearly
the community!"
While in Chicago, ADAPT will hold a national housing forum that will be attended
by HUD Fair Housing Assistant Secretary Kim Kendrick, and state and local
officials. At the forum, ADAPT will reveal its national housing agenda; take
testimony from people across the country who have had difficulty finding
affordable, accessible, integrated housing; and distribute information on
pending visitability legislation, and the redirection of HUD's 811 Supportive
Housing program funds to projects that are integrated. Currently, the 811
program primarily funds segregated housing situations for people with
disabilities.
"As we have begun to make progress in getting people out of institutions, and
preventing people from being forced into institutions, the lack of affordable,
accessible, integrated housing in typical neighborhoods has become glaringly
apparent," said Beto Berrera, a member of Chicago ADAPT and a Chicago housing
expert. "We are hosting this national housing forum so that federal officials
can hear just how bad the situation is, and to gain their support in working
with us to right this wrong."
ADAPT will send a clear message to the Governor of Illinois, the nation's
medical community, and Congress that supporting the incarceration of people in
institutions for the 'crime' of disability will not be tolerated. In the classic
Chicago movie, The Blues Brothers, Jake and Elwood Blues came to Chicago on a
mission from God. ADAPT is coming to Chicago on a mission, too....a mission to
"Free Our People!"
### FOR MORE INFORMATION on ADAPT visit our website at
http://www.adapt.org
