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[image caption] photos by Carolyn Long. Left: Despite hours of negotiations with police, the NGA refused to meet or talk. Below: ADAPTers take and hold the NGA's building.

[Headline] THE SECRET OF GETTING MEDIA COVERAGE IN DC

Back at the other locale, the teams were gathering and once assembled, the first marched from Union Station to Hall of the States. Amazingly, despite the couple of hours for everyone to arrive, ADAPT had apparently not been spotted. This time building doors were not guarded and locked as they usually are when ADAPT comes for an appointment. So all 200 in the first team filed inside, and just as we finished, the other team of 200 arrived from their march across Capitol hill. ADAPT filled the lobby! Coincidentally, we found way to get media coverage in DC Lots of news folks have offices in the Hall of the States, and DC media will apparently cover a protest when the story falls on their doorstep and blocks their front door. The National Governors' Association, NGA, acting as ringleader refused to negotiate, or even discuss the issues. The other groups went into hiding. Then the chants and Celtic drumming began. A small group went and covered the parking garage for over an hour, until things got rough and eventually 30 were arrested, after a dramatic tussle. Strangely the police reacted by using their cop cars to block us in to a courtyard in front of the building. Everyone was still inside so it did little to affect the protest, but served as a sensational backdrop. After a few more hours during which the NGA staff continued to stonewall pretending their director was AWOL, and the other groups remained in hiding, police and NGA alike came to the realization we would not be moved. ADAPT was not going to let these groups wipe their feet on the backs of our brothers and sisters and come out smelling like a rose. So the police began to prepare for arrests. Those in the ADAPT group who were not ready to be arrested moved out-side into the courtyard, but remained on site in solidarity with our brothers and sisters inside. The chant "I'd Rather Go To Jail Than To Die in a Nursing Home" began to echo through the lobby. A restaurant in the building responded by blaring country western muzak out into the courtyard. We waited for Elvis' Jailhouse Rock. Folks from the building peered out of windows and some even went out on the roof to watch. Meanwhile, the Mayor's Conference team was headed over to the Hall of the States to join the rest, but unfortunately some misinformation from the cops lead to a march across town in another direction.

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[image caption] Arrests at the NGA. photos by Carolyn Long

[text continues] They handled it well though and eventually headed back to meet us at the hotel. Like a slow motion scene in a movie, the cops came and went and finally three city buses pulled up. Slowly the 59 people inside were lead or carried out and shuttled off to jail. Though threatened with 19 days in jail, they were eventually let out and returned to the hotel around 2 am! Hungry and tired, they were also proud of their statement for the 2 million locked away in institutions and nursing homes for the crime of being disabled. One man entered the front doors and said I'm no longer a virgin!

[Subheading] OUR HOMES NOT NURSING HOMES, HOW ABOUT IT HUD?

Despite the 12 to 15 hour day folks had been through on Monday, Tuesday ADAPT was downstairs and ready to rock by 8:30 am. For those arrested at the garage, there was court. For the rest of us, this time the focus was to be HUD, the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Support services are a critical piece of the puzzle, but agencies refuse to deliver services under a bridge or in a cardboard box; you also need a place to call home! ADAPT has been working to hold HUD accountable for their support of institutional warehousing for people with disabilities at the same time this federal agency fails miserably to hold housing providers responsible for making their stuff accessible to us! ADAPT had filed a lawsuit against HUD for their failure to enforce their own accessibility regulations Unfortunately, last winter the courts failed us and we lost the lawsuit. The courts said it was up to HUD to decide how it would enforce its own rules. So, clearly there was only one way to make them enforce 504 and stop supporting institutions as housing with the 232 program, etc.: take it to the streets, or in this case their doors.

Again we split up and came together in a march on their headquarters, which covers an entire city block Such a concentration of bureaucrats is a dangerous thing, but this is a dangerous town. ADAPT was ready, surrounding the building like clock-work. The cops helped out by parking their cars across the front doors. We simply surrounded their cars and then covered the other doors with masses of wheelchairs and people Learning from our experiences the last time, a group of dedicated folks also blocked the hardest door, the side en-trance/ exit to the garage. This time it was held so tight trouble was minor compared to before.

The leadership sent our demands inside. ADAPT demanded that HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo: end the 232 program and use the funds for a guaranteed home loan program for people with disabilities; immediately begin an aggressive program that would result in enforcement of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act; include on HUD reporting forms a place to identify all accessible units, and to allow people with disabilities to voluntarily identify themselves as using HUD funded housing; and last but not least assign Section 8 voucher certificates for people with disabilities coming out of nursing homes or other institutions as well as all people eligible for Medicaid Home and Community-based waivers.

Eventually the top level folks inside sent down people to set up negotiations. However, the process was slowed as the HUD folks couldn't get their own security to cooperate, but finally the officials pre-vailed. ADAPT sent in a delegation to negotiate. With their attention focused on the issues at hand, HUD agreed then and there to begin collecting data on disability related to their housing programs (after five plus years of refusing to do so). They also agreed to set up a meeting with Secretary Cuomo for June.

Victorious, we headed back to the hotel. The line for the subway was two city blocks long... and that was only half our group. We waited, but we waited with the satisfaction of having finally gotten the attention of the mule.

Created on

Thursday 18 July 2013

Posted on

Friday 6 December 2019

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