Organizing
CIAD
works directly with adult home residents to organize
for change. CIAD coordinates several activities to
achieve our goals, including:
-
Policy
Committee meetings with resident leaders to
strategize our campaigns
-
Annual
Adult Home Resident Speak-out in Albany
-
Resident leadership trainings
CIAD’s
adult home organizing staff are among the only
advocates who regularly visit adult homes and adult
home residents in the city.
Some
of the issues we work on include:
Greater
Housing Opportunities
CIAD
believes that the key to changing the adult home
system requires moving from a system of treatment and
management and towards a system of empowerment,
rehabilitation and recovery. In redefining the system,
we must create and fund supportive housing models --
ensuring access to appropriate housing remains a
critical step to a different future.
A
Timeline of the Effort to Achieve Independent Housing
for Adult Home Resident
April
2002 The
New York Times publishes a series of Pulitzer
Prize winning, front page investigative reports,
"Broken Homes", by Clifford Levy.
In
the wake of the NY Times articles....
Spring
2002 Governor
George Pataki establishes the Adult Home Work
Group to
make recommendations to reform the adult home
system. The Work Group recommends:
- Moving
6,000 adult home residents out of adult homes;
- Creating
Independent Case Management services;
- Assessing
the housing needs of residents
The New York State Coalition of Adult Home Reform is
established, led
by the Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy, NY
Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitative Services,
Mental Health Association of NYS, and CIAD.
June
2003 Disability
Advocates, Inc., MFY Legal Services and other
legal groups sue New York State,
claiming the state is in violation of the
Americans for Disabilities Act.
CIAD
Organizes Adult Home Residents
Winter
2004 First
Annual Adult Home Resident Speak Out
January
2005 CIAD Action at the Joint
Legislative Mental Hygiene Budget Hearing
2007
The People's
Waiting List Campaign
- We support
passage of a waiting list bill for all people with a
diagnosis of mental illness awaiting housing in the
community;
- We create a
waiting list that documents as many residents as we
can who would like to move;
- We document the
barriers adult home residents face when applying and
competing for scarce housing.
Consumers
Rally for Housing in Albany
January
2008 The
Campaign for Mental Health Housing organizes
the largest mental health rally ever held in New
York, with over 1,500 people attending.
Modest
Gains are Made
Independent
Case Management is installed in 12 homes in 2003.
OMH releases
assessments in 2006 that shows that of 2,600 residents
assessed, over 500 residents are ready, willing and
able to move.
NYC
Supported Housing Initiative
2009
As a result of CIAD
and NYSCAHR advocacy, 60 NYC adult home residents move
to scatter-site apartments, funded by a NYS
Legislative initiative in 2006.
Disability
Advocates Inc. v. Paterson
Trial
takes place from
May
to June 2009
On
September 7, 2009, Federal Court
Judge Nicolas Garaufis rules that New York
State is in violation of the Americans with
Disabilities Act by illegally segregating
adult home residents with psychiatric
disabilities in large adult homes.
On
March 1, 2010, Judge Garaufis
releases his final remedy plan. New York State
appeals the decision two days later.
April
2012 The NYS Court of Appeals
overturns the federal court's decision on
technicalities.
March
2014 A settlement between New York
State and the plaintiffs in O'Toole v. Cuomo
is approved by the federal court.
CIAD's
Court-Related Activities
November
2010 CIAD and ally organizations hold
a rally in front of Governor Paterson's
midtown NYC office to demand he uphold the
federal court's ruling.

- Two
CIAD leaders and former residents testify
at the trial;
- CIAD's
housing video, Coco's Story, is used to
educate residents, policymakers and the
general public about the case;
- CIAD
is an amici in the motion against the
state's appeal;
- CIAD
conducts a 9 week Peer Advocacy Training
for 15 former and current residents to
help educate and support other residents
during implementation of the court order.
2011-2012
CIAD organizes and convenes the NYC
Adult Home Resident Housing Task Force
to:
- Fast
track moves by adult home residents to
supportive housing via the NYC Single
Point of Access (SPOA) process;
- Identify
and overcome barriers in the process.
Hurricane
Sandy
Super
Storm
Sandy had a devastating impact on the
people of New York City including the
2,300 adult home residents living in 15
facilities in the Rockaways, Coney
Island and Staten Island. Fifteen
hundred residents from 11 homes were
evacuated after the storm hit. Many
slept on cots in crowded conditions.
They were all remarkably resilient given
what they endured on a daily basis. CIAD
spent 6 months tracking and reaching out
to residents and responding to their
immediate needs as a result of the
storm. We reported residents’
experiences and circumstances to state
agency staff, helped them respond to
residents as well. CIAD staff:
- Helped
obtain beds to replace the cots that
Belle Harbor Manor residents had been
sleeping on for months.
- Assisted
residents
at the Park Slope Armory obtain
absentee ballots for the November 7,
2012 presidential election, helping
preserve their fundamental rights as
citizens;
- Helped
one
resident obtain appointments at a
local methadone clinic when he could
not get to his regular clinic
appointments miles away;
- Responded
to
complaints from residents of Park Inn
Home for Adults housed at York College
that they were only eating cold
sandwiches for two weeks by arranging
for “Two Boots”, a local Park Slope
restaurant, to provide hot meals for
200 residents and staff at the
shelter;
- Alerted
the
New York State Health Department that
residents from Promenade Nursing
Home arrived at Brooklyn
Technical High School without records,
medication or nursing home staff;
- Alerted
the State Health Department about
unsafe conditions at an adult home
where residents had sheltered in
place.
We
documented residents' experiences in a
participatory research project conducted
with the help of students from the
Columbia School of Social Work. Download
our Sandy Policy Brief. We then made
recommendations to New York City and New
York State about how we can best prepare
to keep residents safe when the next
disaster strikes.
Adult
Home Inspection Reform
To
many residents, the Department of Health (DOH)--the
agency that licenses and regulates adult homes--is an
inaccessible and unknown entity. Because of the lack
of information, residents are unable to bring up
serious concerns about conditions in the home to the
proper authorities. While DOH conducts an in-person
inspection of all the homes on an annual basis, and is
required at this time to speak with residents, most
residents are unaware of the inspection as an
opportunity to speak directly with inspectors. In some
cases residents are even fearful that the inspectors
are there to inspect them or shut down the facility
and render them homeless.
To
facilitate better communication between residents and
DOH, CIAD members worked to reform the inspection
process. CIAD's media team created a training video
for inspectors titled "Who Was That Guy?", which
conveys the mis-perception that many adult home
residents have about the inspection process and offers
suggestions for better communication. The video was
shown to adult home inspectors across the state and
played a strong role in facilitated discussion between
inspectors and residents about improvements that could
be made. We have also published a brochure with the
New York State Health Department that explains the
inspection process to residents and how residents can
participate in the process. Follow this link to the
Health Department's website for the brochure: When
Your Home Is Inspected.
The
Need for Air-conditioning
CIAD
worked with adult home residents to ensure the
provision of air-conditioning in resident rooms. For
the many frail elderly and individuals taking
psychotropic medications, heat can be deadly. Many
residents living in adult homes are highly susceptible
to heat illness or heat stroke.
In
the summer of 2005, CIAD launched a series of public
meetings, released a documentary titled "Dying for
Air: the need for Air-Conditioning in Adult Homes",
and vigorously rallied the press. Through our efforts,
a strong team of legislators (including Assemblyman
James Brennan, Senator Marty Golden, Assemblywoman
Audrey Pfeffer, and Senator Diane Savino) met with the
Department of Health and CIAD to collaborate on a
policy initiative that would address the issue. Since
then, severeal million dollars were spent by the state
to air-condition resident rooms.
The
Need for an Increase the Personal Needs Allowance
Most
adult home residents rely on federal and state
benefits such as Supplemental
Security Income (SSI) benefits or Social Security
Disability Income(SSDI) as their main source of
income. Most of this money is used to pay for the cost
of living in an adult home. What’s left is called
their Personal Needs Allowance (PNA), now a $193 per
month that is meant to cover the cost of clothing,
toiletries, transportation, snack, personal care, and
entertainment.
Considering
the high cost of living in New York and the limited
funds available to many residents of adult homes, CIAD
fought for a raise in the PNA. Because of
continued pressure by adult home residents working
with CIAD and with the assistance of coalition groups
such as the New York State Coalition for Adult Home
Reform (NYSCAHR) and the New York Association of
Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services (NYAPRS),
residents won a increase. New York State raised their
portion of the SSI check by $15 starting January 2006,
and put in an additional $14 in January 2007.
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