Twenty-five years ago, Cliff Levy of the New York Times, won a Pulitzer Prize for his work on the conditions of adult homes in New York City. This massive investigation led to changes in adult home policies and was the impetus for a law suit against New York State on behalf of adult home residents.
Back then, I was appointed to run the new office of adult home reform at the Department of Health. I am proud of the many reforms that took place during that time, most notably was the creation of the EQUAL program. The funding created by this program was disbursed to adult home residents in New York City to help pay for quality of life programs like food, clothing, enhanced trainings and other reforms that residents have talked about for many years.
Key to the reforms, the lawsuit and the Times stories were the role of the advocacy group – CIAD. Though surviving on a shoestring budget, Geoff Lieberman and his team made it work. They were behind the scenes in all the massive reforms of that era.
Now in more recent years, under the leadership of Theresa Young, CIAD is continuing to thrive. They are the voice of the residents by not only supporting them in their daily activities but serving as a launching pad for individuals who want to leave the homes for more independent settings.
For all the great work that has been done, this year’s Executive budget is proposing cutting $230,000 from CIAD and other advocacy groups and also cutting five million dollars from the EQUAL Program. These cuts represent a rounding error in this year’s budget. It makes no sense at all given all the work that has been done to provide reforms for residents and opportunities to transition to more independent settings.
We will be working with our adult home coalition comprised of CIAD, the Alliance for Rights and Recovery, SCAA and MHANYS to urge full restoration of CIAD and other advocacy programs as well as for restoration of EQUAL Funding.
Below is a link to an interview yesterday from Theresa Young and Michael Callaghan of CIAD, former adult home resident, Deborah Hunter and Harvey Rosenthal, CEO of the Alliance for Rights and Recovery on Capital Pressroom. As Dave Lombardo, the host of the show said, ‘this cut represents .00001 of the budget’.
In addition, since the advocacy cut was proposed through the Justice Center for Protection of People with Special Needs, also attached is a letter from the Justice Center Advisory Council Chair, William Gettman to Governor Hochul urging restoration of these cuts during the 30 day amendment process which unfortunately did not happen, but we remain hopeful that it will ultimately be added back to the final budget.
