Housing: Advocating for the Right to Choose Where to Live

Recent words and actions by New York raise serious concerns about its commitment and promise to 5,000 adult home residents’ and their opportunity to move out of institutional settings and intoapartments in the community with supports. In three and one half years only 475 residents have moved, and the state now claims that residents do not want to move, even though there are 1,750 additional residents who have said they want to move. A severe backlog in assessments is delaying the moves of more than 800 residents and over 300 more residents are being delayed by other parts of the process.

New York State has made legal decisionsthat seem designed to rescind the Federal Court Housing Settlement it agreed to in 2014. These actions will further undermine an already flawed process and create mistrust and uncertainty among residents who are still making up their minds on whether to move or not. It is imperative that New York State renews its commitment to the settlement and agree to improve the process.

Our Ask:

  • Fulfill the State’s obligation to provide adult home residents their legal right to live in the community
  • Increase funding to hire additional assessors to handle the backlog
  • Create a Peer Ambassador Program to utilize former adult home residents to support residents throughout the move out process.

Protect Residents: Increase Penalties for Violations by Adult Homes

The New York State Department of Health, the agency responsible for inspection and oversight of adult homes, needs better tools to protect residents, keep them safe, and address repeat violations and patterns of systemic problems within and among facilities. Facilities require stronger incentives to correct violations quickly. All to often, facilities avoid penalties by correcting violations within 30 days, only to fall out of compliance soon after and on a chronic basis.

Our Ask:

  • The Legislature should support legislation (A2743) which will
  • Increase the amount of fines that can be assessed per violation from $1,000 to $5,000;
  • Permit a violation to be issued even if a facility corrects a condition within 30 days;
  • Permit the Department to levy fines “per violation” instead of just “per day.”

Support the Adult Home EQUAL Program

EQUAL funding is vital to supporting residents’ needs and improving the quality of their life and care. EQUAL is a non-competitive grants program for adult homes that serve an SSI population. This funding has been used to pay for air conditioners in resident rooms, resident clothing, non-Medicaid transportation, facility repairs, staff training, and recovery & rehabilitative services to help residents become more independent.

Residents decide how they want the money to be used and the application is authorized by the President of the Resident Council. Resident Council input helps insure that any EQUAL funding would be utilized for the best interests of the residents in the facility and further promote self-reliance and empowerment among Resident Council members.

The Governor’s budget proposal includes language that would allow the Division of the Budget to cut EQUAL funding ($6.5 million) mid-year based upon future Federal revenues.

Our Ask:

Support the Adult Home EQUAL Program funding of $6.5 million in the 2017-18 New York State budget and do away with budget language giving unilateral power to the Division of the Budget to cut these funds.

Fund Advocacy for Adult Home Residents

For many years the residents of adult homes were ignored by public policy and the agencies charged with protecting them. The Coalition of Institutionalized Aged & Disabled (CIAD) gives residents a voice in the public policy debates that impact their lives and also helps them assert their rights through organizing and advocacy. CIAD receives $75,000 in State funding that partially restores funding the organization received before the economic downturn. We also urge the State to invest in expanding lay advocacy for adult home residents statewide.

Our Ask:

  • Increase CIAD’s funding to $100,000 so that it can continue to help residents understand their rights and assist them as they move to a housing alternative of their choice. Establish funding to support advocacy for residents of adult homes throughout the state. Without this funding, residents lose their most vocal advocates as they struggle to gain the independence they deserve.

For more information please contact:

Geoff Lieberman, Executive Director

CIAD

(917) 648-4067