A PROMISE UNFULFILLED The North Carolina Housing Crisis Casts a dark shadow over the 25th anniversary of the Olmstead Decision                                                                                                                        June 25, 2024 Contact:   Nicky Boyte                                   Email: bellbusters@gmail.com The Olmstead Decision established the constitutional right of all people to live in the least restrictive setting of their choosing and recognized that forcing people to live in nursing homes, institutions, and congregate living is a form of discriminatory segregation. Currently, there are 427 Nursing Facilities in North Carolina, with 36,148 residents waiting to transition into the community. This is unacceptable and unconstitutional. NATIONAL ADAPT demands immediate action to reconcile and resolve this ongoing violation of constitutional rights for people living in institutional settings. Individuals not living in institutions regularly encounter monumental barriers to obtaining and maintaining affordable and accessible housing. In North Carolina, there are over 7,000 people on the waiting list to receive home and community-based services, and the wait list for rental assistance and Section 8 housing is 4-7 years. This is unacceptable. National ADAPT demands: 1. Immediate investment in more permanent, affordable, accessible integrated housing! 2. Expansion of the availability of housing Vouchers for Disabled people transitioning from institutions to realize the promise of Olmstead and more accessible and visible information on how to access programs for housing vouchers and community-based services in all public human health service programs and materials. 3. Immediate investment from the State to allocate more money to fund housing and increased assistance for Disabled people applying for federal programs. ADAPT is a national grass-roots community that organizes disability rights activists to engage in nonviolent direct action, including civil disobedience, to assure the civil and human rights of people with disabilities to live in freedom.                                                                              *** National ADAPT Calls on North Carolina HHS Secretary Kody Kinsley to Uphold the Olmstead Decision.   June 24, 2024                                                CONTACT:      ADAPT                                                                         Nicky Boyte bellbusters@gmail.com                                                                         PRESS RELEASE National ADAPT demands a meeting with Kody Kinsley, HHS Secretary of the NC Department of Health and Human Services, to discuss issues with Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS), in order to improve and provide HCBS to all NC citizens with disabilities to live independently in the community. This demand falls just after the 25th anniversary of the Olmstead Decision, a landmark ruling in which individuals with disabilities are guaranteed the right to live in the most integrated setting possible. WHAT:  On Monday, June 24th, National ADAPT will be protesting to demand a meeting with Kody Kinsley, HHS Secretary of the NC Department of Health and Human Services, to discuss issues with Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS), in order to improve and provide HCBS to all NC citizens with disabilities to live independently in the community. The demand to meet will address a multitude of issues and ensure ongoing accountability of North Carolina’s HHS office by implementing an equitable HCBS system for individuals with disabilities. People with disabilities cannot rely on churches, family, or other unpaid networks alone any longer. Additional state funding must be appropriated for people with disabilities to live integrated lives in the community. This includes a strong, well-paid community attendant workforce. In addition, the policy for evaluating community attendant hours must be amended, to be based on an individual’s functional need, rather than their diagnosis. North Carolinians with disabilities have many barriers which prevent them from living independently in the community. They include, but are not limited to, a lack of durable medical equipment, a lack of home modifications, and HCBS funding being inequitably distributed between disability groups. Media are encouraged to attend the protest and hear from constituents about the HCBS crisis in North Carolina. WHERE: NC Department of Health and Human Services,  101 Blair Dr, Raleigh, NC 27603 WHEN:     Wednesday, June 24th, 2024 Learn more about National ADAPT by visiting www.nationaladapt.org and by following us on social media at https://linktr.ee/adaptnational National ADAPT rallies in North Carolina to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Olmsted Decision For Immediate Release                        June 23, 2024 Contact: Nicky Boyte & Jay Staggs –     northcarolinaadapt@gmail.com Raleigh NC – Today June 23, 2024, ADAPT is rallying at the Halifax Mall located at Halifax Mall, 300 N Salisbury St, Raleigh, NC 27603,  from 2pm-4 pm. National ADAPT is rallying to honor the 25th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Olmstead Decision.  The Olmstead decision has given many people with disabilities access to independence and community life. National ADAPT is a grassroots disability rights organization working to make sure disabled people of all ages can live outside of nursing homes and other restrictive facilities and in the community. Volunteer activists have traveled from across the country to North Carolina because too many disabled people  are living in institutions, which is a blatant violation of the ADA as was decided by the Supreme Court’s Olmstead Decision in 1999 .  This rally will kick off a week- long ADAPT style advocacy demonstration as North Carolina ADAPT advocates to improve services and supports for people with disabilities in our state.  Advocates look to improve services for people with disabilities that include affordable, accessible integrated housing, more equity in services across the board for all people with disabilities regardless of labels, and using Money Follows the Person to free our people from institutions and into the community. This Rally will bring together activists, organizational leaders, disability community members, along with lawmakers to recognize and honor our movement. Join us today, to celebrate with others committed to ending institutional bias, by building a system for people with disabilities to live independent lives, outside of nursing homes and other restrictive and unnecessary facilities. To find out what National ADAPT will be working on throughout the week, and how you can support, follow us on social media.   https://linktr.ee/adaptnational

https://abc11.com/post/protesters-continue-pushing-more-protections-nc-residents-disabilities/15001027

https://www.northcarolinahealthnews.org/2024/06/28/rallying-call-for-disability-rights-in-n-c-draws-national-response

person in s chair holding a poster of Lois Curtis and Elaine Wilson.

Tues, June 18th at 11:30am an ADAPT/PACT delegation will gather in front of the Governor’s Mansion 1010 Colorado for a press conference to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision in the Olmstead v LC and EW case.

“Gov Abbott has not led our state in FREEING OUR PEOPLE from Nursing Facilities and other institutions” said Nancy Crowther.

Lois Curtis, L.C., and Elaine Wilson, E.W., the heroines of this story, were two women with disabilities living in institutions in Georgia. Like Texas, Georgia would not let them move into community living situations despite the fact the state had deemed them eligible for community services. The funds allocated for community services were used up, so they had been waitlisted – for years and years.  Their attorney, Sue Jamison, argued the state could use the funds that were paying for them to be institutionalized (at much greater expense than their community services would cost) to pay for them to get services in their own homes. The case went to the Supreme Court which ruled that people with disabilities have the right to live in “the most integrated setting possible” and that “unnecessary institutionalization is discrimination.” 

Though specific numbers are hard to come by, conservatively, hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities of all ages have transitioned from institutions to community since the “Curtis/Wilson” Decision was handed down.

Odd as it may seem, despite its taking a position against people with disabilities in this legal battle, Texas took a lead in implementing change. Programs, like Money Follows the Person, enabled thousands of Texans to be freed from nursing homes and other institutions and receive services in the community.

But Texas has been back sliding, and ADAPT/PACT wants Governor Abbott to meet with us to discuss ways to improve the lot of those needing community supports and services because of their disabilities. So far Abbott has reneged on his promise to meet. We are hoping this silver anniversary will bring Abbott to the table to create solutions.

The decision was released on June 22, 1999. ADAPT is celebrating this anniversary a little early because our members will head to North Carolina June 22 – 27 to join a national protest to help ADAPT in that state free people with disabilities there.

“I have always been bothered by how we refer/celebrate this case as the Olmstead Decision (Olmstead v. L.C., 527 U.S. 581 (1999). We should call our celebrations of this historic case the Curtis/Wison Decision,” said ADAPT organizer Bob Kafka.  “The thousands of liberations that have come from this case have changed the lives of those freed from institutions to live in the community, fulfilling the words of community integration written in the ADA and the Supreme Court Decision.”

Link to Austin Free Press article