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Domov / Albumi / Oznake Las Casitas Housing
+ Dr. Henry Foley 4
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The Denver Post - Sunday June 1, 1975 PHOTO by John Prieto: A woman (Linda Chism) sits in a wheelchair with her legs extended out in front of her and covered by a blanket. Her shoulders are covered by a jacket. She has a lap board on her chair and her purse/bag is resting on it. She is looking ahead. To her left sits a man (Glenn Kopp) in a wheelchair. He has longish hair, a goatee and is wearing glasses. He looks down slightly, as if listening. In the front bottom corner of the picture someone's arm is visible. Caption reads: Linda Chism and Glenn Kopp discuss Independent-Living Idea They are in living room of apartment at the Las Casitas complex. [Headline] Independence from Nursing Homes - Atlantis' Handicapped Move to New Life by Pat Afzal On the surface, this Sunday is just a moving day for eight Denver area young men and women. Underneath, however, the day emerges as a first, precious taste of freedom for them. They are severely handicapped and will move out of nursing homes Sunday into their own apartments and have a crack at independent living. Sunday will be, oh .... like Christmas,” says wheelchair-bound Glenn Kopp, co-executive director of the Atlantis Community, Inc. The group is leasing the apartments where the young adults will live. Linda Chism, Atlantis' treasurer-accountant, likens the moving experience to “a flower opening up. We don't know how it's going to work out for sure. Things will sort of evolve." Their excitement seems normal because they're helping others embark on a new experience. Then they begin to talk about why the independent-living idea got going. And their comments harden into strong indictments against the institutional way of life for the young handicapped. "You know about civil rights?," Kopp asks a reporter. "Well, a handicapped person in an institution has no civil rights." "That statement about race, creed and color - well, it doesn't apply to handicapped people. We're left out of it." Kopp, who was worked in a Denver area nursing home said that when residents there went against the rules, a punishment was to take their electric wheel chairs away. “That's (the chairs) your freedom, you’re movement. Without it, you can't get around." [Subheading] Rule Ridiculed He ridiculed a rule that said the handicapped had to be in bed by 9 p.m. “Why should a grown man have to go to bed at 9 o’clock?" he asks. “It's a so very dehumanizing way to live, to say the least,” Ms. Chism adds. “You’re without privacy. All your dignity is just gone. You're not recognized as a person. You're a patient and that's it.” Nursing homes "like a lot of young people around, tooling around in their wheel chairs,” Kopp says. “lt adds an air of something nicer than just a lot of people sitting around.” By the same token, there isn't a lot of willingness to give the young people the freedom they feel and need, Kopp says. Those who are “lucky enough to have a taste of living normally really get depressed. It can be a very sad thing." It was soon after Kopp stopped working for the nursing home in Denver that he and a friend — Wade Blank — decided that “there's gotta be a better way to live. There has to be some better options." They slowly began to attract verbal, but not much monetary, support for their idea and Atlantis Community, Inc., was born. Eventually the group wants to build a 140-unit apartment complex for the severely handicapped. Right now, however, their first project is the seven apartment units in Las Casitas complex on Denver's west side where the eight young people will be moving Sunday. The apartments are on the western edge of a larger apartment complex in the 1200 block of Federal Boulavard. Credit for helping to make Atlantis’ dream a reality goes to Dr. Henry A. Foley, state director of social services, and John Helm of the Denver Housing Authority, Kopp said. “We went in cold to Dr. Foley, and he got us $3,000 seed money to apply to a larger grant," Kopp said. The grant, from the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation, made possible almost $20,000 in renovations at the Las Casitas apartments. Helm told them about the apartment vacancies. The new tenants will live on welfare and social service payments, and visiting nurses and on-site attendants will help take care of their medical and personal needs. On July 1, six other tenants will move in. Those slated for the Sunday move are “frightened, understandably,” Ms. Chism says. “When you've lived in an nursing home much of your life, you’re naturally apprehensive about living on your own." She said police were worried about the safety of the tenants because the apartments are in a higher-crime area. “But they (police) don't realize that in an institution, you don’t own anything for very long because it’s stolen," Kopp said. [Headline] Meetings Encouraging Meetings with a tenant union at Las Casitas have been encouraging, he added, and residents already living there have welcomed the idea of their new neighbors. The problem now is for Atlantis Community to stay alive financially so other young handicapped adults also can experience the freedom of independent living. And there are immediate problems like finding things such as kitchen utensils, bed linen and furniture to make the Las Casitas like home. But optimism about the future is apparent. “When you think of how far we've come in a year," Ms. Chism says. “I'd say there's a lot more to come from Atlantis."
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The Denver Post 2/28/1975 (Handwritten note at top of the page: Hey Bar - Congratulations! What's your projected involvement in it?) [Headline] Cooperative Project Disabled to Get Apartments By Sharon Sherman, Denver Post Staff Writer Fourteen young disabled persons are expected to move from nursing homes into apartments of their own within three months as part of a cooperative project paid for by city, state and federal funds. The young people would rent at a reduced rate renovated apartments in the Las Casitas Homes, at 11th Ave. and Federal B1vd., operated by the Denver Housing Authority. They would receive medical, rehabilitative and counseling services from community agencies. The project, named the Atlantis Community Early Action Program, will be funded through the Denver Mayor's Commission on the Disabled. It was designed by members of Atlantis Community, Inc., a committee of disabled and able-bodied persons working to create a planned community for the young physically handicapped. "I don't think this is the final answer (to problems of the young disabled in nursing homes), but it's a beginning with good possibilities,” said Dr. Parnell McLaughlin, director of the Colorado Division of Rehabilitation, through which the money for the project will come. The early-action program is expected to cost $16,417 initially. A little more than $3,000 of that has already been committed by Dr. Henry A. Foley, director of the Colorado Depart Social Services. That money will make it possible for McLaughlin to tap unused federal matching funds available to Colorado for rehabilitation projects. "We're still about $400 short, but I think we can work that out,” McLaughlin said. Las Casitas was chosen for the early-action program because it is built on relatively flat terrain, with some open space available, has access to bus service and is near the Westside Neighborhood Health Center. The aim of the program, according to the written proposal, is “to offer a normal way of life to the severely disabled.” In addition to rent subsidy, the project would provide residents with a program coordinator and home-care attendants who will see that medical, education, transportation and other services are available. Residents will receive the attendant care needed and will be billed only for the actual hours of service they receive. [Subheading] SCREENING PROCESS Those persons renting the units will be selected by a screening committee of disabled persons from Atlantis Community, Inc. The screening process will include a written application, supplying background, medical and financial information, and an interview. If the Atlantis Community is achieved, the units at Las Casitas would become “satellite" housing for the community.
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[this page contains a letter and below it an article from the newspaper Rocky Mountain News] Atlantis Community Inc. 619 south broadway denver, co 80223 303-297-3056 March 12, 1975 For Immediate Release At a recent meeting between Dr. Parnell McLaughlin, Director of the Colorado State Dept. of Vocational Rehabilitation, his staff, and representatives from the Atlantis Community it was discovered that an additional $400 will probably be needed to finalize the Atlantis Early Action Program. Dr. Henry Foley, newly appointed Director of the Colorado State Dept. of Social Services, announced at a press conference, March, 1975 that a $3,000 grant will be matched with a $12,000 federal grant for the rehabilitation of seven apartment units at the Las Casitas Housing Projects. These apartment units will be designed specifically for severely disabled young adults in wheelchairs. Although officials from the Denver Housing Authority and the Architectural Consultant from Atlantis estimated the cost for rehabilitating the apartments to be $14,000-15,000, a more detailed study puts these costs in the neighborhood of $16,500. Since no more emergency funds are available from the Dept. of Social Services, the Atlantis Early Action Program will fall short about $400.00 in State matching monies. The Atlantis Community is therefore appealing to the citizens of the State of Colorado for this money. In the event that more than $400 is raised, this extra money shall be used for furniture, transportation and printing costs. Applications for the Atlantis Early Action Program are now being taken. Disabled individuals should write Atlantis Early Action Program, 619 S. Broadway, Denver, Colorado 80223 for applications or call Cindy Montgomery, Glenn Kopp or Ingo Antonitsch at either 321-7269 or 297-3056. [signed] Atlantis Rocky Mountain News Handicapped to get chance in apartments photo: head shot of a man looking to the side. He is balding and has glasses, a jacket and tie. Caption reads: Henry A. Foley Fourteen severely handicapped young persons will be given a chance to live together in apartments instead of being confined in nursing homes because of a jointly funded pilot program called "Atlantis." The program was announced Thursday by state and city officials to an audience of about 25 handicapped persons who may become eligible to be the project's first residents. "This program may not be unique in the country, but we hope it will become a model," said State Social Services Director Henry A. Foley. He said the state has pledged $14,500 to remodel the seven apartment units which will be used for Atlantis residents. The apartments, which will each house two handicapped persons, are located in the Las Casitas housing project on Federal Boulevard between 11th and 12th Avenues. Ingo Antonitsch, director of the Denver Commision of the Disabled and chairman of a seven-member board created to administer the project, said he hopes the first residents can move in next month. The board will screen handicapped persons now living in nursing homes or with relatives to determine which are best suited, he said. Antonitsch said the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department has pledged $80,000 in federal funds to help plan the program. The Denver Department of Health and Hospitals has agreed to provide Atlantis residents with part-time medical assistance, he said. Residents wlll be required to pay rent for the apartments. “We want to prove that even the severely disabled, when given a little moral support, can become sell-sufficient and integrate with the community at large," Antonitsch said.
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[Headline] Make Atlantis Work With a newfound militance mixed with not a little nervousness and a bit of tear, eight young persons recently moved into their first apartments. What made them different? All possess severe physical handicaps; all moved from the protective atmosphere of nursing homes which they had grown to find stifling. The little group moved into renovated apartments at Las Casitas complex in the 1200 block of Federal Boulevard. On July 1, they will be joined by six others. Atlantis Community, Inc., as they call their new venture was born of a small sum of "seed" money from Dr. Henry Foley, director of the state Department of Social Services, and matching federal funding. If the program works—if the young people are able to successfully live in a semi-protected, semi-free community environment—it is hoped that it will be expanded.