To: Friends and Colleagues

From: Jay Klein and M.W. Auberger

Date: March 19, 2001

Subject: Center for Housing and New Community Economics (CHANCE)

The Institute on Disability at the University of New Hampshire (IOD) announces the creation of the Center for Housing and New Community Economics (CHANCE) that will improve access to integrated, affordable, and accessible housing coordinated with, but separate from, personal assistance and supportive services. CHANCE's purpose will be to offer alternatives to approaches that segregate, congregate, and control people with disabilities. The IOD will work in partnership with ADAPT in all aspects of the center.

The development of community housing and services for people with disabilities has been a major national policy direction for the past 20 years. Unfortunately, the administrative structures supporting community services typically promote congregate and agency controlled approaches to housing and personal assistance services. While the number of people living in institutions and large facilities has decreased, the vast majority of individuals residing "in the community" live in residences owned and controlled by someone else. Housing and personal assistance services are dictated far more often by government and agency preferences than by the needs and desires of persons with disabilities. Current approaches have not assured that people with disabilities are afforded control over, or even a voice in, the most basic decisions regarding where they live, with whom they live, the nature of the assistance they receive, and how they spend their time.

CHANCE's preliminary efforts will be focused on Access Housing 2000, a proposed national initiative to assist people with disabilities to move from nursing homes into the community. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have established a partnership with the IOD, to create a coordinated response to the Olmstead decision. Access Housing 2000 is explained by HUD in the December 19, 2000 Federal Register and by HSS in a letter sent to State Medicaid Directors on January 10, 2001 titled "Olmstead Update No: 5."

CHANCE is guided by a clearly defined set of principles:

… while people with disabilities need personal assistance services and integrated, accessible, and affordable housing, we believe that housing and assistance must not be linked;

… people with disabilities must be afforded the opportunity to direct all aspects of their lives, including their homes and apartments, services and supports, funding, planning, and coordination activities;

… a successful initiative to bring about integrated, accessible, and affordable housing and personal assistance for people with disabilities will require systems change at the local, state, and federal level and the collaboration of the public and private sectors; and

… affordable, accessible, integrated housing must be attainable for all Americans.

ADAPT and the IOD intend to collaborate with a broad coalition of individuals and organizations concerned with housing, personal assistance, and economic equity, including people with disabilities, families, federal, state, and local governmental and private, advocacy, financial, service, and housing agencies, community civic, businesses, associations, and citizens, foundations, and others.

CHANCE will provide an alternative to the traditional agency controlled services that have a vested interest in maintaining congregate living and the institutionalization of people with disabilities. For this reason, your support is critical. Please give us permission to use your name as a collaborator in these efforts.

______ Please list our organization as a collaborator with CHANCE

Name of Organization: ______________________________________

Contact Person: ___________________________________________

Address: _______________________________________________

City: ____________ State: _________ Zip: __________

Phone: ( ) ____________ Fax: ( ) _____________

TDD: ( ) ____________ e-mail: _______________

Our organization is national ________ / state ________ / local ______

_____ Please include me as an individual collaborator with CHANCE

Date: ______________

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