ADAPT heads for Chicago - Arrests to follow

[Traveling_Home]

For Immediate release:
August 20, 2007

For Information Contact:
Bob Kafka [phone]
Marsha Katz [phone]
Gary Arnold [phone]

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!"

[pop goes the weasel]

1. Good for ADAPT!

I wish that disability rights activists were given adequate media attention. People who don't have disabilities seldom have any idea just how quickly one's rights to self-determination, and even life itself, can be taken away for the convenience of the state and the profit of others.

[madrchsod]

2. my wife works with developmentally disabled adults

in the state of illinois ..i am interested in this "reopening a state institution" and the 20,000 in nursing homes. we are very familiar with this problem but i`m not sure what adapt is talking about and it`s numbers.

[Traveling_Home]

3. Here's the latest Chicago ADAPT numbers

contact: Larry Biondi
708-209-1500 day
708-209-1735 fax
874-332-1366 eve
-or-
contact: Rahnee Patrick
312-640-2100 day
Email Rahnee in IL
-or-
contact: Ed Hoffmans
773-728-2219

Diane Coleman
708-209-1500 days
630-787-1929 eves
708-209-1735 fax

I'm sure they can give you the information you are looking for.