October 2005

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Disability Rights Activists Protest Deadly Responses to Katrina

Peacework volunteer Alyson Lie compiled this article from ADAPT press releases.

Fed up with being the targets of Congressional Medicaid cuts, and apalled at the treatment of people with disabilities in areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina, disability rights activists with ADAPT organized five days of actions in Washington, DC, September 17-22, 2005.

A press conference was held next to FEMA Headquarters on September 19, attended by FEMA staff. ADAPT Organizers from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama called into the press conference from their home states to inform the crowd by speakerphone about the state of affairs for Katrina survivors with disabilities in their respective areas. They spoke of people with disabilities being the last people evacuated, being turned away from shelters because of their disabilities or because they had no attendants with them, being separated from family, caregivers, and necessary equipment and service animals, and now languishing in nursing homes and other institutions unconnected to the official resources being made available to the majority of Katrina survivors.

Thirty-four people at St. Rita's nursing home died after the owners refused offers to evacuate them. The owners now face murder charges. The response to Katrina underlines the long-term crisis of care for people with disabilities in nursing homes.

ADAPT has a long history of organizing in the disability community and using nonviolent direct action tactics to achieve its goals. In 1983, as a project of the Atlantis Community in Denver, ADAPT began its national campaign for lifts on buses and access to public transit for people with disabilities. ADAPT began as American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit. Many went to jail for the right to ride.

Once the transit issue was largely won, ADAPT felt it was clear that attendant services should be the next issue. ADAPT now also stands for Americans Disabled For Attendant Programs Today.

Some Republican lawmakers proposed paying for Katrina recovery by cutting $10 billion from Medicaid. ADAPT activists insisted that the needs of people with disabilities shoud not be pitted against Katrina survivors for essential services. Five hundred ADAPT activists occupied the offices of Congressional leaders for five hours on Monday, September 19, 2005, resulting in 104 arrests.

"Low income people with disabilities are hemorrhaging as a result of the continual cuts to Medicaid by the states and Congress," said Barb Toomer, ADAPT Organizer from Utah. "The leaders of the House and Senate are obviously in a position to stop the bleeding, so we came directly to them. We feel these cuts very personally, and we wanted the Senators and Representatives to feel it personally, too."

Entering the offices of Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN), Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Rep. J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL), Rep. Tom Delay (R-TX), and Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), ADAPT presented each with the following demands:

1) Support restoration of the proposed $10 billion Medicaid cuts.

2) No arbitrary caps on Medicaid, or block granting of Medicaid funds.

3) Eliminate the institutional bias in Medicaid which favors nursing home care for people with disabilities by supporting MiCASSA (S .401, H.R. 910 ) and Money Follows the Person (S. 528, H.R. 3063)

4) Fund HUD housing vouchers for all people transitioning from nursing homes and other institutions to integrated community living.

5) Sponsor an initiative to address long term care services, durable medical equipment, assistive technology, support services, service animals, and community housing for Katrina evacuees with disabilities.

H.R. 910: MiCASSA, introduced by Rep. Danny Davis, (D-IL) on Feb 17, 2005, would, if passed, provide protection for the disabled consumer. As an Amendment to Title XIX of the Social Security Act (Medicaid), H.R. 910 would provide extensive consumer choice for those in need of long-term care. MiCassa would allow consumers to choose among various service delivery models including vouchers, direct cash payments, fiscal agents, and agency providers. On March 14, 2005, H.R. 910 was referred to the House Subcommittee on Health.

Randy Alexander, a Tennessee ADAPT Organizer, said, "This really is a matter of our life and death." He explained, "A few months ago, Tennessee Gov. Bredesen drastically cut back TennCare, including home care services for people who use ventilators. He openly admitted that he was forcing these people into nursing homes. Just today we got word that we have suffered the first death of a ventilator user, the first casualty of Gov. Bredesen's heartless cuts. Unless Congress acts, the deaths will continue."

During the six-day direct action and lobbying effort, ADAPT activists paid visit to HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson's Washington, D.C. headquarters as well as his home in Alexandria, Virginia to deliver the message that ADAPT wants HUD vouchers for people transitioning out of nursing homes and institutions into community living. Eventually, Secretary Jackson appeared before the crowd of protestors in the HUD plaza and committed to work with ADAPT on voucher implementation.

Shona Eakin, a Pennsylvania ADAPT Organizer, said, "We are pleased that Sec. Jackson did what no HUD Secretary before him has done, namely, come to us in the street, outside the HUD fortress, and pledge to work together to improve the lives of people with disabilities."

"We have made real progress in recent years getting people out of nursing homes using our own ingenuity, perseverance, and the Medicaid System Change Grants. Our biggest challenge remains finding accessible, affordable, integrated housing for people to move into when they leave the nursing home."

During the demonstrations, DNC chair Howard Dean sent a statement of support for ADAPT's agenda, calling on the nation to, "ensure that Americans with disabilities are fully integrated into our society and included in our emergency preparedness plans, so that, moving forward, they are never again left behind."

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