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Jay Klein is a recognized expert on housing and has been a pioneer in assisting people with disabilities to move from institutional settings into homes of their own. Jay is the Director of the Center for Housing and New Community Economics (CHANCE) and the National Home of Your Own Alliance at the Institute on Disability (IOD) at the University of New Hampshire.

CHANCE was created by the IOD, ADAPT, and a broad coalition of individuals and organizations concerned with housing, personal assistance, and economic equity to improve access to integrated, affordable, and accessible housing coordinated with, but separate from, personal assistance and supportive services. CHANCE maintains the National Home of Your Own Alliance, a technical assistance center and clearinghouse, through a website, a toll-free information and referral line, and responses to requests for information and publications.

Jay is an international leader in efforts to include people with disabilities in the mainstream of community life. As an educator, community organizer, project director, and author, Jay has worked on policy and practice related to the economic and social participation of people with disabilities in order to foster inclusion in their communities. Throughout his career, Jay has administered a variety of projects in collaboration with federal and state agencies, with a focus on state and federal policy analysis, model demonstration, technical assistance, and interdisciplinary training. He has in-depth knowledge of and experience with financial, policy and programmatic issues that effect the ability of people with disabilities to accumulate assets to live in communities, and is widely respected for his ability to translate best practices into everyday realities for people with disabilities and their families.

Jay has presented and collaborated extensively in the United States and internationally. He has provided technical assistance to individuals, families, agencies, and policy makers throughout the country and abroad on supporting individuals with disabilities to live in their communities. Jay has been an active member of numerous national advisory boards and groups, and has provided testimony to Congress. He currently serves as an adjunct faculty member at Colorado State University.

Some of Jay’s publications on topics such as housing, home ownership, systems change, community development, and supported living include: The History and Development of a National Homeownership Initiative; Post Cards on the Refrigerator: Changing the Power Dynamic in Housing and Support; Homeownership for People with Disabilities: The State of the States in 1999; A Home of Your Own Guide: Training Manual for Homebuyers Education; and Get Me the Hell Out of Here: Supporting People with Disabilities to Live in Their Own Homes.

Contact Information

Jay Klein
Center for Housing and New Community Economics (CHANCE)
3445 Riva Ridge Road, #H-104
Fort Collins, CO 80526
970.377.0706 (v); 970.377.0536 (fax); 970.377.0630 (tty)
Jay.Klein@unh.edu

Paul Ford is the Project Director of the Nursing Facilities Transition Project at the Connecticut Association of Centers for Independent Living (CACIL). The Nursing Facility Transition Project is now funded by the State of Connecticut Department of Social Services. Initial funding was from Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services - CMS (Formerly Health Care Finance Authority {HCFA}). The state contracts CACIL to run the project, which has two goals: (1) Create a system for individuals living in nursing facilities who want to move (or transition) to the community with the supports they need, and (2) Demonstrate the effectiveness of the system by assisting individuals to transition from nursing facilities to the community. Paul is responsible for the statewide coordination of this grant, providing technical assistance and resources to individual Transition Coordinators in various regions of the state as well as management of the grants database, which is being used to generate data to support the systems change work of the grant. Formerly, Paul was with Independence Northwest, a CIL.

Contact Information

Paul Ford
CACIL
151 New Park Avenue
Hartford, CT 06106
(860) 656-0430; (860) 656-0486 (fax); (860)-586-2353 (TTY)
pford@cacil.net