AdvocacyFirst
I hope you enjoyed spending time with your loved ones over the Thanksgiving weekend. As we head into the last month of the year, it’s time for another AdvocacyFirst newsletter!
MCTS NEXT Open Houses
The folks at Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) have announced another series of open house sessions to inform people about their review of the transit system. They are working hard to get feedback from the public throughout this entire process, so be sure to attend and tell them what you think!
NORTH SIDE
Thursday, November 29
5 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Silver Spring Neighborhood Center
5460 N. 64 St.
Milwaukee, WI 53218
SOUTHWEST SIDE
Tuesday, December 4
5 p.m. – 7 p.m.
American Serb Hall
5101 W. Oklahoma Ave.
Milwaukee, WI 53219
EAST SIDE
Thursday, December 6
4 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Brady Street Firehouse
1693 N. Franklin Place
Milwaukee, WI 53202
You can also go to the MCTS NEXT website to review the proposed route maps. If you zoom in closely, you can see the individual stops along the routes.
There are two route options. The first option would create a system in which 60% of the routes would be high frequency, meaning that a bus would come along every 15 minutes or less during the week. The other option would have 80% of the routes being high frequency. But there are trade-offs because they have to do this within their budget. Trade-offs include eliminating some stops and changing some routes. That could impact people with disabilities who live along a route near a stop. This is essentially a question of, “Do you want to wait longer for a bus, or do you want to walk farther for a bus that will come more quickly?” Tell MCTS what you think at one of the open houses or online!
Milwaukee County on Track to End Chronic Homelessness
People who are chronically homeless pose tremendous challenges to the system; they tend to use up far more resources than the average resident in terms of hospital visits, police interactions, imprisonment, etc. By the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) definition, to be considered chronically homeless, one has to have a disability—typically mental illness or substance use disorders—in addition to facing long-term or recurring homelessness.
It has long been known that the best way to help this population is to provide housing first, and then take care of other issues. This is known as “Housing First.” Milwaukee County under then-County Executive Walker and now under County Executive Abele has worked with the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors to provide funding for programs and services to support people who are homeless, or at risk of being homeless, in subsidized housing units. This has resulted in chronic homelessness being cut nearly in half since 2015. But there is still a lack of resources. With Congress facing a severe budget deficit in the next session, there will be substantial pressure to cut programs and services. Constituent feedback is used by legislators when they need to make budgetary decisions, so contact your federal legislators to share your thoughts on funding for homelessness programs and services and other housing programs.
EMPOWER Care Act and Disability Integration Act (DIA) Advocacy
The advocates at the National Council on Independent Living are asking individuals around the country to assist with advocacy in regard to two bills that they believe will improve community integration options for people with disabilities. The first is the EMPOWER Care Act, which is a bipartisan bill that would reauthorize the Money Follows the Person (MFP) demonstration program. This program assists people in moving out of nursing facilities into the community. The next bill is the Disability Integration Act (DIA), a bill introduced by Sen. Schumer and Wisconsin’s own Rep. Sensenbrenner. The DIA would end the institutional bias that exists in funding for Long Term Services and Supports. The “institutional bias” is that, by law, nursing home care has to be paid for by the state, but there is no similar legal requirement for Home and Community-Based Services. Want more details? Read NCIL’s Advocacy Monitor.
Power of People with Disabilities in Elections
RespectAbility, a national nonprofit organization that focuses on education, training and employment opportunities for children and adults with disabilities, reports that candidates who are supportive of opportunities for people with disabilities were more likely to win in the recent election. Or as RespectAbility says, “Key senate and gubernatorial candidates from both sides of the political aisle…won big this election, showing that disability rights is a winning issue.” This shows the importance of people with disabilities participating in elections.
The next Wisconsin election is scheduled to be the 2019 Spring Primary on February 19, 2019. For there to be a statewide primary, three or more candidates need to be competing for the Justice of Supreme Court opening. Furthermore, local races for Courts of Appeals and Circuit Courts also would need three candidates for the primary to happen locally.
After the Spring Primary, the next election is the Spring Election on April 2, 2019 You can track the election at My Vote Wisconsin and check what is on your ballot once the ballots have been finalized.
|
