Project Description:
Project Access is a national initiative designed 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 to implement this initiative. HUD will provide Section 8 vouchers. Using both Nursing Home Transition Grants and Medicaid waivers, HHS will work with state Medicaid offices to provide personal assistance services. HUD is contracting ABT Associates, Inc. to provide technical assistance to implement Project Access. ABT is an international company that provides program evaluation, policy analysis, technical assistance, and program operation services. ABT will subcontract with the Institute on Disability/UCEDD at the University of New Hampshire through its Center for Housing and New Community Economics (CHANCE).
CHANCE was established in March of 2001. CHANCE's mission is to improve and increase 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. ADAPT is a national organization that focuses on promoting services in the community for people with disabilities.
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.
ADAPT and the IOD intend to collaborate with a broad coalition of people and organizations concerned with housing, economics, personal assistance services, and advocacy. The coalition will include people with disabilities and their families, as well as people from federal, state, and local agencies. Collaboration between the private and public sectors will be encouraged and facilitated.
CHANCE will work in the eleven states that have received 400 Section 8 Project Access Vouchers from HUD. The work will be carried out from September 2001 through August 2003. CHANCE will respond to requests for information from sites on the strengthening of their coalitions, development of strategic plans, implementation of transition efforts, identification of people to participate in the project, leasing of vouchers, and provision of technical assistance.
CHANCE provides technical assistance in the form of telephone and e-mail to answer questions, review of materials, targeted training, site visits, and provision of information to individual sites to strengthen their capacity to implement initiatives.
Keyword(s):
housing, integrated, nursing facility transition, affordable, accessible,
Core Function(s):
Training Trainees, Performing Technical Assistance and/or Training, Developing & Disseminating Information
Unserved or Under-served Populations:
Racial or Ethnic Minorities, Disadvantaged Circumstances, Limited English, Geographic Areas, Empowerment Zone, Reservation, Rural/Remote, Urban
