The Long Wait

The battle over handicapped-accessible public housing gets nasty.

by Jason Tomassini

shelter

When Shawna Connor was a 22-year-old graduate of Ursinus College with a degree in English and minors in communications and biology, she was ready to move out of her parents' house and begin a public-relations career. But shortly after entering the "real" world, Connor was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

It was manageable, but led to organ damage and respiratory problems that eventually brought surgery in 2002. During the operation, Connor had a severe seizure, leaving her partially paralyzed in both legs and her right arm. After spending seven months at Devon Medicare, eating mostly through a feeding tube, Connor was moved to Inglis House, a Belmont Avenue nursing home and care services organization for young and middle-age adults that was scheduled to host a mayoral forum yesterday morning.

Today, Connor is 30 and resigned almost exclusively to a wheelchair, but still wants to live on her own. There's just one problem: She has nowhere to go.

Despite completing Inglis House's training program for independent living a year and a half ago, and having a Section 8 voucher to support her move into public housing, Connor remains in limbo. "It gets frustrating because I know when I move out, I'm going to succeed," she says. "Even though I have the easiest form of MS, I still don't know how long I'm going to be doing this well. I don't want to move out, be in a house for six months, and have to move back in [to Inglis]."

Cassie James of Philadelphia ADAPT — the local chapter of a national disabled housing rights organization — estimates that more than 200 local disabled nursing-home residents currently face a similar predicament.

James' dissatisfaction is directed at Carl Greene, executive director of the Philadelphia Housing Authority since 1998. In 2000 a Federal District Court ruled that at least 5 percent of PHA's housing must be handicap-accessible. PHA spokesman Kirk Dorn says that all the housing PHA has built since contain 10 to 20 percent handicapped-accessible units. He added that eight sites that have been recently built or are under construction contain 191 handicap-accessible units. As a result, Dorn says, PHA now exceeds the federal requirement at 6.38 percent wheelchair-accessible units and, "by this time next year ... will be at 6.62 percent, an almost unheard of percentage for public agencies."

But these housing units are not necessarily of the right kind or in the location where the disabled person grew up and have their support system, says James. James adds that the PHA won't meet to formulate a plan to deal with these issues. A pending U.S. District Court case between PHA and Liberty Resources, a local disabled civil rights advocacy group, says PHA is in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Stephen Gold, attorney for Liberty Resources and ADAPT, says PHA is not actively seeking privately owned, accessible housing because the rent is more than the voucher covers.

"The housing authority either has to negotiate with property owners to get the cost down or increase the value of the voucher for that disabled person so they can use it as effectively as nondisabled people," Gold says. "This is a civil-rights issue."

PHA, however, maintains it's a misunderstanding. Dorn says PHA and ADAPT have a common adversary in the Bush administration, which has cut funding for vouchers and public housing, and says private-property owners are mostly unwilling to make their units accessible because of the inherent expenses.

"When the organization does nothing but attack you unjustly, it makes you not feel like engaging in dialogue," Dorn says. "At the point when ADAPT comes to the realization that they and we have similar interests, that might create an environment for some conversation."

James is concerned with a general feeling of disrespect coming from PHA, specifically one board member: City Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell. James — who lauded Blackwell's late husband Lucien as an ally for disabled people — and other representatives went to Blackwell's office following a protest Sept. 27. When they demanded Blackwell help set up a dialogue with Greene, she allegedly responded with prejudice.

"Why did you bring these people in here?" Blackwell allegedly said. "You're being led around by able-bodied people and told lies about Carl Greene."

Many Liberty Resources and ADAPT employees are disabled themselves. James, who has been diagnosed with spina bifida, says the comment was directed at ADAPT spokesperson Nancy Salandra, who is not handicapped.

"I'm not going to argue with people in wheelchairs," Blackwell said later when asked for her version of the meeting. "In good faith, I can't do that. They have enough to worry about."

So, Connor remains in a nursing home, awaiting an opening at one of 266 Inglis units that currently exist, or are currently being developed. Connor prefers Inglis units over the PHA ones, but has made a deal with her father that if she hasn't been moved to one in five years, he'd try to find PHA housing. She knows the wait could be costly.

"I'm hoping people will move out, but usually when you go to one of the houses, you are there for life," she says. "I'm scared. I don't know how long my life is going to be, but I want to get out on my own before it's too late."

(editorial@citypaper.net)