The
COVID-19 Pandemic
The
first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has
taken a terrible toll on adult home
residents. That toll has been up-close and
personal for CIAD. We have lost leaders,
friends, and people we stood with during
countless campaigns.
Toll
Free Support Line
With
a visitor ban long in effect, CIAD
realized that addressing the loneliness
and social needs of residents was as
important as responding to the health
crisis the pandemic posed, CIAD launched a
toll-free Support Line for residents to
help address these needs:
866-503-3332
It
operates Monday, Wednesday and Friday,
from 9 am to 11 am and 2 pm to 4 pm.
CIAD Launches Newsletter
Written
by and for residents, the newsletter
provides information about the pandemic and
other information residents need to know.
Resident councils also share news about what
is going on in their homes. Take a look at
the September 2020 and December 2020
issues.
CIAD Launches
Independence Training Program
- Conducted
a Train the Trainer Program for eight current
and former residents to become Peer Advocates;
- Hired
these Peers to conduct the Independence
Training sessions;
- Hired
a full-time Training Director to supervise the
Peers and direct the program;
- Published
Taking
Control: A Guide to Greater Choice and
Independence, which will be
distributed widely to residents. Download
Taking
Control here.
Residents Travel to Albany to
Advocate for a Personal Needs Allowance (PNA)
Increase
Residents
pushed for the increase during CIAD's 14th
Annual Speak Out on March 15th, at
meetings with the Governor's Office and
Legislative leaders. Residents desperately
need the increase. They spend a
substantial amount of their PNA on food,
as many find the meals offered by the
facilities inedible or not meeting their
nutritional needs. Other necessities, such
as clothing and personal hygiene items,
are also major expenses for residents,
leaving very little for entertainment,
transportation and other activities that
bring meaning to one's life. Click
here to view the rest of CIAD's
State budget and legislative agenda.
SSI
Rate Increase Proposed for Adult Homes
The
New York State Legislature passed a
bill to provide more funding for adult
homes at the end of the 2017
Legislative Session.
CIAD has
mobilized residents and their advocates to
represent the residents' interests. We have
called for a commensurate increase in
residents' Personal Needs Allowance (PNA);
stronger enforcement of adult home
regulations, and a way to ensure that any
additional money the adult homes receive is
spent directly on improving resident services.
This could mean, for example, increasing the
$5 per day most homes spend on food for each
resident.
The New York State Assembly's Health,
Social Services and Aging Committees
held a hearing on the issue on
September 19, 2017. See
CIAD's testimony here.
Also see City
& State's
coverage of the
issue here.
O'Toole v. Cuomo Update
Recent
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 into apartments 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 decisions that seem
designed to rescind the Federal Court Housing
Settlement it agreed to in 2014. These actions
will further undermine an already flawedprocess
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 YorkState renews its commitment to the
settlement and agree to improve the process.
Adult home residents
now have a choice in housing!
CIAD's
13th Annual Adult Home Resident Speak Out
Adult
home residents will travel up to Albany on March 22,
2017 to voice their alarm at New York State's
failure to keep its promise to them under the terms
of the O'Toole settlement. To improve the settlement
process, we are calling on New York State to hire
additional assessors to handle the backlog of
residents and to create a Peer Ambassador Program
which will utilize former residents to provide peer
support. We will also meet with elected
representatives to discuss our other
priorities, which include strengthening the
enforcement of New York State adult home regulations
and protecting the $6.5 million appropriation for
the EQUAL Program in the New York State
budget. Click here to see our 2017
legislative agenda.
New
Round of EQUAL Funding
