For Immediate Release: October 1, 2026
For Information Contact;
Christopher Murphy at 507-340-3889
Lydia Nunez at 832-630-8419
Washington, D.C.—-ADAPT activists wearing yellow construction helmets circled around in front of the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) headquarters to provide testimony about the need for more affordable, accessible housing, and to air grievances about some HUD policies and operations. They were joined by David Gonzalez Rice, PhD., the Senior Vice President of Public Policy for the National Low Income Housing Coalition; CT Tyson, Government Affairs Liaison at Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF); and Jennifer Mathis, Deputy Director of the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law.
After hearing some heart wrenching and outrageous firsthand HUD experiences from ADAPT members, representatives from ADAPT’s ally organizations each spoke.
All of the participating organizations strongly support the need for more affordable, accessible community housing, and Mathis added the need for more of the successful and cost-effective supportive housing advocated for by BAZELON.
Dr. Rice reiterated what ADAPT has known for many years from both NLIHC and the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA), namely that the highest number of housing discrimination complaints are based on disability status.
Tyson and others also strongly advocated to a return to the days when HUD stayed in communication with HHS because both affordable, accessible housing and various physical and emotional supports are necessary to transition people out of constricting and costly institutional settings back into their own homes in the community, as well as to prevent institutionalization in the first place.
After this show of solidarity and mutual support ADAPT returned to HHS to further emphasize the need for communication and collaboration between HHS and HUD.
Participating with ADAPT this week was Bob Williams, who has worked in federal government as Deputy Assistant Secretary of HHS for Disability, Aging, and Long Term Care Policy; Commissioner of the US Administration of Developmental Disabilities; head of the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) Office of Employment Support Programs; Senior Advisor to the Deputy SSA Commissioner for Retirement and Disability Policy; and Deputy Commissioner Administration on Disabilities and Director, Administration on Independent Living. After he shared some federal government disability history and information about how we got to where we are, he implored the disability community and all activists to stay together, make our voices heard, and “stay in the streets!”
Watch a livestream of Williams’ words on the National ADAPT Facebook page, along with news, photos, and livestream for ADAPT’s week in D.C.