The Denver Post

Denver Post PHOTO: A thin young man (Mike Smith) lies in bed wrapped in sheets. His long dark hair is laid out on the pillow above his head, and his dark eyebrows, beard and moustache frame his features. He looks with a burning intensity up and someone (mostly out of the picture), who is holding a book.
caption reads: MIKE SMITH WATCHES AS AN ATTENDANT READS SOME OF HIS POEMS. He is confined to bed at Atlantis Community, which was plagued by foulups.

[Headline] MIKE SMITH'S' DREAM
[Subheading] Atlantis Battles Delay, Foulups
By FRED GILLIES
Denver Post Staff Writer

"Realize...Realize..."

The words came in a strange, guttural tone from the young man lying semiconscious on the bed, breathing life-giving oxygen through tubes running from a tank nearby.

Mike Smith, 21, had been severely drained by the ravages of muscular dystrophy, his grim companion since birth. Yet, early last week as Mike lay unconscious for the third day, he seemed to radiate a private kind of peace and serenity in this small bedroom overlooking a busy Denver highway.

Realize. . . For Mike Smith, realization of the promise and the hope of freedom for himself and seven other handicapped persons came when they became the first residents of the Atlantis Community, opened June 1 at the Las Casitas Housing Development in southwest Denver.

At Las Casitas, in a pioneering experiment in personal fulfillment, they reside in their own apartments, set their own rules, and, as far as the handicapped can, manage their own lives.

Gently, an attendant stroked Mike’s forehead, bent near him and whispered words which only he might have heard.

His mother, Mrs. Joanne Davis, stood nearby and said Mike had “come home” to the place where he wanted to be, to the freedom he had sought so long for himself and other handicapped persons.

But a threat to this hard-won freedom arose shortly after Atlantis was started.

Mike and four other handicapped persons at Atlantis found they had become victims of the slow-moving, computerized bureaucracy of the federal Social Security Administration.

And unnecessary hardships and worry had been created for the Atlantis residents by on incredible delay on the part of the U.S. postal system in Denver and the acknowledged poor judgment of a Lakewood nursing home.

Mike and the four other Atlantis residents were depending heavily on their Social Security checks to pay for their food, rent, attendants’ services and other expenses at Atlantis.

But these checks didn't arrive on time early in June.

Atlantis officials obtained some emergency financial help, partly through Denver's food stamp office, but it wasn't enough.

And one day early last week, an attendant at Atlantis was trying to plan a dinner meal which he hoped would cost about 40 cents for each Atlantis resident.

But it shouldn't have come to this point of desperation.

[Subheading] PLANNED CAREFULLY
Mike, other Atlantis residents and staff members had planned carefully for this major change in their lives. In mid-May, they had contacted the Social Security Administration in Lakewood, detailing their plans and indicating they would be leaving their nursing home and beginning a new way of life. This change would make them eligible for higher Social Security payments to meet their increased expenses.

Social Security officials in Lakewood accepted this information for input in the administration's national computer.

And at that time, a Social Security official at the Lakewood office also advised the handicapped persons to file change-of-address cards with the Denver Post Office. If this were done, the official said, the handicapped persons' Social Security checks would be sent on time to Atlantis, rather than being held up at the nursing home which most of the eight handicapped persons would be leaving June 1.

Wade Blank, Atlantis‘ co-director, took completed change-of-address cards for all future Atlantis residents to the South Denver postal station, three days before the changes were to take effect. And a South Denver postal employee said there should be "no problem" in forwarding the handicapped persons' Social Security checks to Atlantis early in June.

[Subheading] SYSTEM FAILED
But from that point, the system failed miserably.

Four Social Security checks for Atlantis residents weren't forwarded to them at their Atlantis address early this month, but went instead to their old address at the Heritage House Nursing Care Center in Lakewood.

A Heritage House clerk, although aware of the handicapped persons move to Atlantis, sent three of the checks back to the U.S. Treasury in Birmingham, causing computer delays [unreadable] in issuance [unreadable] checks.

[unreadable] Social Security [unreadable] up at a garage [unreadable] street from Atlantis.

This check either had been addressed incorrectly at Heritage House or delivered by the postman to the wrong address. An employee at the garage [unreadable] carried the check to Atlantis.

[unreadable]the long postal [unreadable] involving the [unreadable] change of address cards.

It took 13 days [unreadable] cards to make the 10 min journey from the South Denver postal station to the Belmar station by way of the post office's Terminal Annex. At Belmar, employes didn't follow postal regulations and send these cards immediately to Heritage House. This was not done until June 12, after an Atlantis representative contacted Belmar postal officials about the check delays.

Responding to Denver Post inquiries, postal officials said they couldn’t explain the 13-day delay.

[Subheading] RETURNED CHECK
Another handicapped person, at Heritage House and then at Craig Rehabilitation Center before coming to Atlantis, didn't receive his Social Security check for June because Heritage House sent his May check back to the U.S. Treasury. This action placed the handicapped person's file "in suspense"- delaying issuance of future checks.

Local postal and Social Security officials have told The Post they are -"distressed" over these situations.

"It shouldn't have happened... I agree with this 100 per cent," said Thomas O'Halloran, administrator at Heritage House. But he said the Heritage House clerk was “just following my orders" to return checks to the sender when no forwarding address is available.

However, O'Halloran acknowledged that the clerk knew of the Atlantis project and knew that the former Heritage House residents had gone to Atlantis. The clerk's judgment to send the checks back to the U.S. Treasury, rather than to Atlantis, "was not proper at that time," O'Halloran said.

[Subheading] EVERYTHING 'COVERED’..
Everett Caldwell, branch manager of the Social Security office in Lakewood, said he thought “everything was covered" when the change-of-address cards were filed with the post office for the Atlantis residents.

"We thought their checks would simply be forwarded," he said.

But when the checks went to Heritage House, the nursing home should have contacted his office, Caldwell said."

"And we should have clued in Heritage House—but we didn't do it,” Caldwell added.

He acknowledged that Atlantis residents had given him data in time to make their increased Social Security payments.

But Social Security's national computer, he explained, is set up so that it couldn't accept this data until June 1. when the change in the handicapped persons’ living status was to take effect. And that means about a 16-day delay before the checks arrive, he said.

The Denver Post Office “knows that something went wrong, but we don't know exactly what it was," said Dick Sealer, the post offices Denver
district director for customer services.

By the time the change—of-address cards had been delivered tardily by the post office to Heritage House, “the damage had been done"- the checks had been returned to the Treasury, Sealer conceded.

[Subheading] STEPS TAKEN
Officials at both federal agencies and at Heritage House said late last week that steps have been taken to prevent a recurrence of this situation, and lapses in procedures will be corrected.

Meanwhile, through Caldwell’s persistent efforts, three of the Atlantis residents have received part of their Social Security payments for June and other payments are expected to be made soon. Caldwell said, however, that he wished Atlantis had informed him sooner about the check delays.

Because of those delays, Atlantis, still in in a precarious financial situation, according to Linda Chism, the project' accountant, funds that Atlantis [unreadable] to its recent drive for founder members were exhausted recently in paying Atlantis attendants’ salaries, she said.
And she stresses that there still is a desperate need for donations from other persons who wish to become founder members of Atlantis, headquartered at 1232 Federal Boulevard.

[Subheading] MIKE'S BATTLE
For Mike Smith, it is a touch-and-go battle. Early last week, he regained consciousness and greeted his mother, with a cheerful “Hi, Mom!"

By late last week, Mike still was confined to bed at Atlantis and still was using an oxygen tank to ease his breathing. Other medical assistance was being provided to Mike.

But no matter what happens, Mike said then, Atlantis will succeed, because persons in this group have the driving desire to make it succeed.

This intense desire is reflected in much of the highly imaginative and deeply moving poetry Mike has written over the years-- poetry which fills five notebooks.

In the opening of one of these poems, Mike wrote of a final journey. But there also is something here which tells of his strong and enduring commitment to Atlantis and to those working so hard for its success.

In this poem, Mike wrote:

“I feel my spirit surging inside,
Speeding and whirling along,
Like a mighty March wind,
blasting into April,
Making the trees bow
low
for the royalty of the
wind.
Like a child of innocence,
I see my dream before me.
And I shall surpass any
mountain,
or ill or death itself . . .“


Photo Denver Post, David Cupp: A woman (Linda Chism) sits in a power chair with a lap board. Her short legs are extended straight in front of her and covered with cloth. She has a big smile, or laugh on her face.
Caption reads: LINDA CHISM LAUGHS AS SHE ENJOYS A SPRING DAY. She says delays put Atlantis in precarious situation.