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Disability Activists Confront #BuildBackBetter Holdout Representatives

Press Advisory For Immediate Release

For information contact

Josue Rodriguez: 915-449-3834

Jennifer McPhail: 512-627-5869

ADAPTNational@gmail.com

Disability Activists Confront #BuildBackBetter Holdout Representatives

Who: National ADAPT

What: Confronting Democratic Representatives blocking passage of the Build Back Better social infrastructure bill

Where: Outside Rayburn, Longworth, and Cannon House Office Buildings on 45 Independence Ave. SW

When: Happening Now, Wednesday, November 17, 2021

Why: To demand the Representatives stop blocking passage of the Build Back Better social infrastructure bill, and support full funding of Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS), which keeps people out of institutions. HCBS funding also provides living wages for the attendants who provide essential, often intimate care for older and disabled people.

ADAPT is also demanding that the House support funding for affordable, accessible, integrated housing, because you can’t have HCBS without the “H.”

NationalADAPT.org @RealNatlADAPT on Twitter & Instagram, ADAPT National on Facebook and TikTok, National ADAPT on YouTube ADAPTnational@gmail.com

#DisabledNotDisposable #CareCantWait #BetterCareBetterJobs #HoUSed #ADAPTandSurvive

ADAPTers behind a clear banner that reads Build Back Better Now. — ADAPTers behind a clear banner that reads Build Back Better Act Now.

National ADAPT Applauds Biden Administration for Build Back Better Legislation Framework

National ADAPT applauds the framework for the provisions in the Build Back Better legislation that provides $ 150 billion for home and community-based service and includes $150 billion for affordable housing throughout the United States. We additionally appreciate working with Rep. Maxine Waters and her staff in adding the $2.5 Billion of the $150 billion for 811 funding specifically for the disability community.

The process has just begun for this framework to become law but members of ADAPT are committed to continuing to be the voice for all who have been forced into institutions because of lack of either home and community-based services or affordable housing. It is in this spirit, we look forward to working with the Biden Administration and Congress to pass this legislation and end the institutional bias by providing HCBS and affordable, accessible, integrated housing.

We call on all of our political leaders to support this framework in its entirety and Free Our People!

October 6-7, 2021 Action Recap

October 7, 2021

Yesterday ADAPT activist from around the nation went to the Hart Senate Building to meet with Senators Manchin and Sinema. The reason we were wanting to meet with them both is that they are the two people who are holding up the human infrastructure projects in the Build Back Better Jobs bill. We were refused entry into the building because we were told that the building is closed unless you have an appointment.

We have requested meetings for some time now and have been ignored. We communicated this fact to the Capitol police. We also requested that they contact the Senators and ask them to come out. The police refused. The police gave us three warnings in about a period of ten minutes. 16 of us were arrested from the larger group of ADAPTers. We were ticketed and released. Although, that is not always the case when we have been arrested in the past fighting for our freedom for over the past 40 years in ADAPT.

Then we marched through the Capitol Complex to join a coalition of organizations advocating for the Build Back Better Jobs bill. We arrived to the Vigil for HCBS and Community Attendants/Direct Support workers wage increase. The vigil was awesome!

It was attended by National ADAPT and 15 other disability, aging, and caregiver organizations. ADAPTers hung in there from the evening of October 6th through 7PM of the 7th, some even camped out at the Capitol all night. We read the personal stories of people that use HCBS programs and the workers stories. It was also attended by Senator Bob Casey from Pennsylvania and Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington State. Senator Casey took the personal stories orgsnizations collected throughout the Country to use as an advocacy tool on behalf of the human infrastructure projects in the bill. Sometimes it can be very difficult to share our stories but they will be used to change the course of history for the better.

The Build Back Better is a result of all of ours and allied organizations hard work through the years and is an opportunity that only comes along once in a generation. We still have hard work to do to get it passed but everyone should be proud.

Press Coverage

The Care Movement Fights Back Against Cuts to Biden’s Historic Home Care Plan

IN THEIR OWN WORDS: WHY RECIPIENTS AND PROVIDERS OF HOME CARE SAY CONGRESS MUST ACT

Protesters push Congress for home care funding: ‘If we get sick, we leave and no one backs us up’

The mild-mannered senator behind a major liberal push

Senator Bob Casey Meets Disability Rights Advocates From 24-Hour Storytelling Vigil, Urges Congress to Pass the Build Back Better Plan

Don’t Cut Care

Uncertainty Surrounds Biden Plan To Boost Disability Services

ADAPT Starts Daylong Vigil in DC Joins Disability, Aging, and Caregiver Coalition to Press for Passage of Build Back Better Social Infrastructure Bill

For Immediate Release
For information contact:
Mike Oxford: 785-224-3865
Rhoda Gibson: 617-504-1792
Jennifer McPhail: 512-627-5869
ADAPT Starts Daylong Vigil in DC Joins Disability, Aging, and Caregiver Coalition to Press for Passage of Build Back Better Social Infrastructure Bill
Washington, DC, October 6, 2021—ADAPT and 15 other disability, aging, and caregiver organizations are holding a daylong vigil on Capitol grounds starting tonight to impress upon Congress the crucial need for fully funded Home and Community-Based Services, and affordable, accessible housing. Funding these two programs would help prevent the over 200,000 largely preventable deaths that have occurred in nursing facilities so far during the COVID-19 pandemic.“We in ADAPT have been fighting over 30 years for the services and housing that would allow those of us who are disabled and aging to live in our own homes and communities with the services we need instead of being forced into nursing homes and other institutions,” said Latoya Maddox, Philadelphia ADAPT organizer. “Congress has so far failed to ensure our freedom, and as a result Congress is partly responsible for the horrific number of nursing home COVID deaths.”Organizations participating in the vigil include the ACLU, ADAPT, The Arc of the United States, Autistic Self Advocacy Network, AAPD, Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, Be A Hero, Care Can’t Wait Coalition, Caring Across Generations, Little Lobbyists, Justice in Aging, National Council on Independent Living, National Domestic Workers Alliance, National Council on Aging, National Health Law Program, and SEIU. “We need home and community-based services to be a fully funded guarantee for older and disabled people, “ said Mike Oxford, ADAPT organizer in Kansas. “We need the caregivers who help us dress and bathe so we can work and go to school and volunteer to be paid a livable wage with benefits. And we need affordable, accessible housing so we have homes where we can receive the services that will help us live productive, contributing lives, and be included in our communities.” The vigil begins at 7pm tonight EDT. Coalition organizers invite all Republican senators along with Democratic Senators Manchin and Sinema to meet with vigil participants to learn how much their constituents need and support passage of the Build Back Better bill.

NationalADAPT.org @RealNatlADAPT on Twitter & Instagram, ADAPT National on Facebook and TikTok, National ADAPT on YouTube ADAPTnational@gmail.com#DisabledNotDisposable #CareCantWait #BuildBackBetter #HoUSed #ADAPTandSurvive

Disability Activists Confront #BuildBackBetter Holdout Senators

October 6, 2021
Press Advisory For Immediate Release

For information contact:
Lydia Nunez: 832-630-8419
Rhoda Gibson: 617-504-1792
Jennifer McPhail: 512-627-5869
ADAPTNational@gmail.com
Disability Activists Confront #BuildBackBetter Holdout Senators
Who: National ADAPT
What: Confronting Democratic Senators blocking passage of the Build Back Better social infrastructure bill
Where: Outside Hart Senate Office Building at 120 Constitution Ave NE, Washington, DC 20002, Offices of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and Sen. Joe Manchin
When: Happening Now, Wednesday, October 6, 2021
Why: To demand Sen. Sinema and Sen. Manchin stop blocking passage of the Build Back Better social infrastructure bill, and support full funding of Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS), which keeps people out of institutions. HCBS funding also provides living wages for the attendants who provide essential, often intimate care for older and disabled people. ADAPT is also demanding that both senators support funding for affordable, accessible, integrated housing, because you can’t have HCBS without the “H.”
View our Demands here.

National ADAPT ADA 31st Anniversary Statement

31 years ago, President George Herbert Walker Bush signed the ADA into law with the words, “ Let the shameful wall of exclusion finally come tumbling down.” While there have certainly been advances during the past 31 years, and a reduction in disability discrimination, during the past year and a half we have painfully witnessed the enormous and preventable cost of the continued exclusion of disabled people from the general fabric of society.

For 31 years ADAPT has fought to undo the institutional bias in Medicaid that traps disabled people of all ages in nursing homes and other institutions, excluded from their communities.

For 31 years ADAPT has fought to make Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) the norm for disabled people of all ages so they can live in their own homes and communities while receiving the services and supports they need.

If Congress had listened to ADAPT over the past 31 years, the thousands and thousands of COVID deaths that occurred in the nation’s nursing homes in the past 18 months could have been prevented. If Congress had listened to ADAPT over the past 31 years, the Money Follows the Person Program that assists people to leave nursing homes and return to their communities would have been made permanent. If Congress had listened to ADAPT over the past 31 years, the nation’s workforce providing HCBS would be receiving the livable wages and benefits they deserve for the hard and essential work they do. Passing the ADA was a tremendous victory, filled with the promise of liberty and equity. Implementing and enforcing it has proven to be another fight at best, and an exercise in futility at worst.

The yearly anniversary of the ADA will only be truly and authentically celebrated when it’s long overdue promises become our everyday reality for all.

National ADAPT Statement Endorsing Chairwoman Waters’ Housing Infrastructure Bill

National ADAPT, the grassroots, activist, disability justice organization enthusiastically endorses the housing infrastructure bill drafted by Chairwoman Waters and her Committee. ADAPT has fought for over 30 years for disabled people to be able to live in their own homes and communities; marching, protesting, even being arrested. Lack of affordable, accessible, integrated housing remains one of the biggest barriers to independence for the disability community. This bill supports disabled people in an unprecedented and historic manner; greatly expanding vouchers for rent subsidies and for relocating from institutions, doubling accessibility requirements in public housing and adding basic accessibility called “visitability” in all federally funded housing.

Continue Contacting Your Senators To Fund HCBS In Next COVID Package

OUR MESSAGE TO SENATORS: PEOPLE ARE DYING SHAME ON YOU!

For years we have told policymakers that Institutions are where we send people to die.

Now we know it is true.

Over 53,000 of our siblings have died in nursing facilities. We don’t even know how many more have died in all other types of institutions, including group homes, and state hospitals.

While our people are dying, Congress is at home on legislative break. Our Senators need to hear from us NOW. They returned to work on July 21^st, they will ACT within the next 2 weeks.

ADAPT calls on advocates across the country to call, write, and where safe, visit our Senators in their home offices and in DC to tell them:

FUND HOME AND COMMUNITY BASED SERVICES NOW. $20 Billion should be dedicated to support people living in the community by making sure programs remain in place, workers are paid for their services, and personal protective equipment is available for disabled people and their workers.

MAKE MONEY FOLLOWS THE PERSON a permanent program, or extend the program for 3-5 years. Short-term funding extensions are not keeping the program running and people need a way to get to the safety of their own homes.

Take action by contacting your Senators and these suggested action activities, sample press release, script, and talking points are also available HERE.

To find the home office locations for your Senators’ Home Offices, enter your address at: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/map

The Senators for your state will be listed, and a link to their official website is available.

ADAPT Talking Points To #ADAPTandSurvive

ADAPT DEMANDS Congress support our right to live in the community by funding home and community based services, supporting our Community Workforce, making personal protective equipment available, and ensuring we have affordable, accessible, integrated housing.

ADAPT has sent an Open Letter to Congress demanding action. We must ensure Congress pays attention and responds to our needs!

Post on social media, write an email, organize a car parade around your Congressmembers Offices! In any way you can, tell Congress:

Unnecessary institutionalization has been illegal since at least 1990. Now the COVID pandemic has exposed further dangers of congregate living.

Forcing people into institutions is not only a violation of our rights, it is a DANGER to our safety, well-being, and our LIVES.

We need the services and supports that allow us to safely shelter-in-place in the community.

Community services must be available to keep people from being institutionalized in congregate settings.

Programs, services, and supports must be available to allow people to move back into the community to live in the most integrated setting.

Direct Service and Support Workers are essential to keeping us alive, safe and healthy. They deserve to be recognized and protected by receiving increased wages, overtime pay, hazard pay, and protective gear.
The number one barrier to home and community living is lack of affordable, accessible, integrated housing. Housing must be developed. The shortage of housing that is affordable, accessible and integrated is past the critical stage. Likewise rental subsidies must be vastly increased.

National ADAPT Condemns Violence Against AAPI Community

National ADAPT condemns the attacks against Asian American and Pacific Islanders across the United States. National ADAPT believes that every human being has the right to be safe and to be treated with respect.

Our hearts go out to those who lost loved ones as well as to the survivors of these brutal attacks. Nearly 4,000 hate related incidents have been reported against the AAPI community since the Coronavirus was first detected in the United States last year. Many of those attacks were against elderly and disabled Asians and Pacific Islanders, and over half occurred in the state of California.

National ADAPT is committed to anti-racism. We will continue to do the work required to be both inclusive of all people, and an active and responsible ally. We look forward to working with our siblings in the Asian American and Pacific Islander Community to build a more just and equitable society, while continuing to work to end the institutional bias that exists in the United States.