The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

CommUNITY 2000

• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Civil Rights and Fair Housing Today
• CommUNITY2000: What is it? Why is it?
  • Purposes of CommUNITY 2000: Developing, Documenting and Reporting
  • Funding: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
  • Overview of Partners for First 18 Months
• Building Communities With a Menu of Strategies
  • Accomplishments for Modeling by Organizations Nationwide
  • Successful Strategies: The National Partners
  • Successful Strategies: Local Partners
  • Contact Information
• National Partners
  • Building Community Throughout the Country
  • National Advisory Board
• The Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston
• Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities
• Access Living
• The Fair Housing Council of San Diego
• Building Community for the Future
• Appendix A: Case Studies on Coalition Building Activities
  • Introduction
  • Case Study Methodology
  • City Approaches to Community Tensions
  • Cross Cutting Themes
  • Recommendations
• Appendix B: Census 2000 Charts
• Acknowledgements

Access Living

Building Community Through Innovation

CommUNITY 2000's national partners knew that Access Living, one of the oldest and largest advocates for independent living in the country, was equipped to address tensions that arise when group homes for disabled persons move into neighborhoods.

They did not know that Access Living would redefine what it means to address tensions in the communities that define the lives of a portion of the disabled population — the group homes themselves.

Access Living, founded in Chicago in 1980 and staffed with a majority of disabled persons, seeks housing alternatives that enable the disabled to live independently while maintaining access to critical services. It also emphasizes community outreach and education, advocacy, community organizing, and civil rights.

In its affiliation with Phase I of CommUNITY 2000, Access Living took the innovative position that the civil rights of the disabled were just as likely to be violated in the group homes where many of them lived as in their surrounding neighborhoods. Access Living broadened CommUNITY 2000's definition of "community." For disabled persons, a respectful, harmonious living environment is one that allows them the choice to live in the most unrestricted, integrated environment possible, said Daisy Feidt, Access Living's CommUNITY 2000 project director.

In general, the United States has been slow to protect the rights of the disabled on all fronts, including access to housing. People with disabilities were excluded from the Fair Housing Act of 1968, an oversight not corrected until an amendment to the act was passed 20 years later.

National statistics on hate crimes indicate that bias-motivated crimes against the disabled are not on par with crimes against other minority groups. (FBI statistics reveal that of the 8,063 hate crime incidents reported in the year 2000, 36 were against the disabled). But Feidt and others who work with the disabled believe the numbers are so low because the disabled community as a whole remains unaware of what constitutes a hate crime and how to report one.

Similarly, while the 1988 amendments to the Fair Housing Act guaranteed access to housing, it did not ensure fair treatment. Often when group homes move into communities, neighbors resist, assuming that their property values will fall or that the home's residents pose a threat. Further, Feidt said, residents of group homes frequently face internal oppression; the providers who are paid to meet their needs place unwarranted restrictions on them.

Access Living maintains that the solution is to move people with disabilities out of group homes and into more independent living situations, while still providing them the services they need. This eliminates the tensions that develop when neighbors feel threatened by group homes, Feidt said. It also eliminates the restrictive environments of the group homes themselves, she added.

However, it is difficult to change the entrenched belief among many in the political and civil rights arenas that group homes are an ideal living situation for the disabled, Feidt acknowledged.

Fortunately advocates for the disabled, such as Access Living, were given a weapon to fight the status quo in 1999 with passage of the Olmstead decision. A 1999 Supreme Court ruling, it challenges Federal, state and local governments to develop more opportunities for persons with disabilities. The decision interprets the Americans with Disabilities Act to require states to administer their services, programs and activities in the most integrated setting appropriate to the needs of individuals with disabilities.

The Olmstead decision's issuance and the partnership with CommUNITY 2000 were a happy coincidence for Access Living, Feidt said. Eager to force government bodies and group home providers into compliance with Olmstead, Access Living proposed using CommUNITY 2000 resources to develop a broad-based plan to help the disabled better understand their housing rights, and encourage them to make their own decisions about acceptable living situations.

After carefully considering Access Living's unorthodox proposal, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund embraced Access Living's approach, and lent national support and resources to the organization's efforts.

"Access Living's ideas were innovative and compelling," said Corrine Yu of LCCREF, who was national program director for CommUNITY 2000. "We all learned a great deal from this particular partnership."

Access Living's efforts focused on two goals:

• Ending the practice of requiring disabled persons to accept predetermined services (which often don't suit their individual needs) in exchange for housing.
• Creating as many choices as possible for the disabled population.

Ideally, Feidt said, the disabled should be able to live in the least restrictive environment that suits their needs, and live with whom they choose. "If a disabled person chooses to live in his or her own apartment," she said, "then whatever support services are necessary should come to that apartment."

If a disabled person chooses a group home setting, Feidt said, the services provided within the group home should be tailored to fit the needs of the individual resident. Too often, she said, residents of group homes — otherwise known as Community Integrated Living Arrangements (CILA) in the state of Illinois — are forced to agree to restrictive conditions in exchange for housing. These conditions are solely for the benefit of the group home provider, she said, not the individual.

Such conditions include requiring group home residents to spend the bulk of their waking hours in day treatment facilities in exchange for housing. This, according to group home providers, is a more efficient way for them to run a congregate living facility. However, day treatment does not always meet the needs of the individual client, Feidt said, and can even be counterproductive.

As a CommUNITY 2000 partner, Access Living advanced the cause of housing self-determination for the disabled on a number of fronts. Its most successful and far-reaching effort, according to Feidt, was to develop and implement a self-advocacy curriculum that trained disabled persons to teach the classes to their peers.

Access Living held more than a dozen peer-to-peer trainings for disabled persons that taught:

• The definition of advocacy/self-advocacy
• Laws that protect CILA clients
• How CILA clients can stand up for their rights
• Housing choices for CILA clients
• Techniques to make self-advocacy more effective
• Practicing self-advocacy skills
• Ways to get involved in the disability movement
• Peer support groups available for people with disabilities

Because group home providers are required to schedule educational programs for their residents, most did not balk at allowing the peer-to-peer trainers into the homes, Feidt said.

Leodies Jefferson was one of Access Living's peer-to-peer instructors. A 49-year-old mentally ill man, Jefferson has lived in group homes since 1991. According to Feidt, his story is typical of those whom Access Living successfully trained to help their fellow group home residents:

"It was a beautiful experience. I was talking to people, telling them that I was able to improve my situation and they could too. I told them they didn't need to feel like prisoners — either in housing or the whole mental health system," Jefferson said.

"I enjoyed giving them names of people who could help them with any problems they were having. I said that these people helped me a great deal, that I moved from a highly supervised situation living with eight people to a less supervised situation with three people.

"I hope I was able to help the people I talked to. By me having mental illness, I know it's very hard to make changes. You feel threatened. You think you're going to mess up, go down instead of up. I hope I was able to get across that they can always improve themselves."

Access Living further advanced the cause of self-determination in housing by:

• Hosting a series of community forums to educate fair housing advocates about the housing needs and rights of people with disabilities. Many of these advocates automatically assume 46 Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund Access Living that group home providers speak on behalf of group home residents. Housing advocates also assume that group home situations are beneficial, and do not know about alternatives, Feidt said.
• Conducting housing workshops in those university and college classes that teach disabilityrelated curricula on why current living situations for the disabled often are oppressive. "Access Living helped my class understand the range of housing options that should be available to the disabled," said Paula Davis, who teaches a course entitled "Disability, Diversity and Society" at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.
• Initiating a grassroots campaign to push lawmakers to revamp the housing system so that disabled individuals are:
  • in control of their living choices
  • not forced to accept certain services in exchange for a place to live, as is typical in many group homes.
• Developing a rapid response system — a plan for reacting quickly when community tensions arise — that aids disabled persons who feel threatened, no matter their living situation. Access Living's rapid response system mobilizes when community tensions arise because a person with disabilities moves into a neighborhood. (If neighborhood tensions involve a group home, Access Living stipulates that it will use the rapid response system only if a resident of a group home feels threatened, not a group home provider). Regarding group homes, Access Living also executes its rapid response system when a group home resident experiences tension within the home itself. "We are well-prepared to respond to neighborhood tensions," said Feidt, "but only if an individual feels threatened, not a group home provider."

Access Living is continuing its campaign to ensure housing rights for the disabled beyond Phase I of CommUNITY 2000, and is optimistic that its perspective is replacing widely accepted notions about group homes.

"One of our goals was to get civil rights advocates and politicians to ask themselves whether their actions were really helping the person with disabilities or the provider," Feidt said. "We can tell from the responses we're getting that now they are asking themselves that question."

Further, LCCREF has enlisted Access Living to teach its self-advocacy curriculum to CommUNITY 2000's Phase II local partners in Boston and North Carolina.

"We know that this is not a point of view that many in the civil rights and fair housing communities are aware of," said Corrine Yu, "and we want to spread the word about self-advocacy for people with disabilities."