FINISHED TRANSCRIPT 
EXPANDING HOUSING OPTIONS FOR 
 PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES  RENAISSANCE HOTEL CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 
 THURSDAY, AUGUST 9, 2012 
 9:00 A.M. TO 4:45 P.M.
This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. 
***

AMBER SMOCK: So what's going to happen now is Beto and I have a presentation called making your voice heard, systems advocacy opportunities 101. For those of you who are newer to housing advocacy, this is a great opportunity to kind of systematically think through what kinds of options there are to advocacy.

For those of how are more experienced, maybe this will help you check what are we doing, what are we not doing, are there things that we could be expanding upon. 

Again, we are not here to say that the Chicago way is the only way to do things. We know that you have to do what works for you in your community in your state. But I would like to point out that the list of housing issues that we brought up, entitled the page "home state housing issues", if you look at every one of those issues, those are not home state housing issues, those are national housing issues. They apply to every single state in the country.

We have commonalities across the states, it just depends on how your state is set up. 

Kicking off with making your voice heard systems of advocacy 101, we will be going until 12:30, so sit tight. But we will be having some interactive pieces with this as well. 

So clicker is really cool. Okay. 

So the first slide that we have up there is called looking at the landscape. Again as we know housing is a human right and we know the demand, affordable, accessible, integrated housing. We know people can't afford housing. Existing housing is not accessible. We know that existing programs and providers mostly don't practice scattered site housing which is a big deal. We also know and I can say this from somebody coming from outside of housing and learning to work with housing folks, housing is about hurry up and waiting. Right? So housing policies and opportunities request change rapidly, or move very very slowly. 

You only need to take a look at the federal HUD budget to talk about something that moves real slow. Right? But then all of a sudden you'll be told like, you know, oh, there is an opportunity for public comment and the deadline is one week from today. Get your act together. There is a lot of hurry up and weight. 

We will kick off with a discussion of existing disability housing law and know that you have talked about various pieces of disability housing law. There is some things I think were covered the last two days we're going to get to those. So we will talk about law first, then funding streams, then talk about opportunities and ideas for advocacy. That's how this is going to be structured. 

Existing disability housing law, I'm going to have Beto take it from here for this first one. 
>> ALBERTO BARRERA: I think I already have one plugged in. There are so many lights if here! 

(Laughter.) 

It is 60 laws, the most popular ones are all the federal laws. And we started creating laws right after some of our veterans came back from second world war. Our veterans are demanding more accessibility and more affordability for housing as well. 

So there were more realizing and they came together with some great advocacy voice to create the -- where it would create the architectural barriers -- 
(some noise coming from the microphone) 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: What are you doing here? Accommodations and reasonable modifications. Okay? 

People now have the right to request those for reasonable accommodations. There is a lot of debate about what is reasonable and what is not reasonable. But always receive it up to the -- leave it up to the individual making the request.

But most important the fair housing amendment act had a design and construction part of it. They had 7 requirements that should have been implemented for accessibility. So I wanted to mention that. We can talk more about it on different slides with different areas. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: Going into -- I mean we have some slides up here. So we have these various laws listed out. 

The first thing that we have here is a basic description of what the architectural barriers act of 1968 is. Do you mind if I go ahead and read this out, Beto? 

Anyway, architectural barriers act requires the facility design, build, alter or lease with funds supplied by the United States federal government be accessible to the public. 

So facilities that predate the law generally are not covered but alterations or leases undertaken after the law took effect can trigger coverage. 

Remember earlier Beto was talking about UFAS -- UFAS, right? The Architectural Barriers Act requires the uniform federal stability standards are developed and maintained by the U.S. Access Board and serve as the basis for standards used to enforce the law. 

So there are 4 federal agencies responsible for setting the standards. Department of defense, department of housing and urban development, HUD, the general services administration and U.S. postal service. 

Those federal agencies are responsible for ensuring UFAS when designing and altering construction and leasing facilities. This is only federal government. It is a start. Beto said it started after Martin Luther King was assassinated. This is the start of it.

Next thing in time came your favorite thing, Section 504. Right? You want to talk about this and housing? 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: Amber just mentioned the United States access board. I think it is important you know the responsibilities of this board. 
Does someone here can give me like an idea or what the access board is supposed to be doing? Or are doing? 

And doing it very well by the way. 

Setting standards not only for ABA, but also for Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility guidelines. This is how code people, architects and designers follow the US board's different codes. They are always changing. 

We talked a little bit about 504 and that's my favorite law. Because if you use it effectively, you can create wonderful changes and opportunities in housing for our people. 

I put out yesterday a little paper on our accomplishments with the Chicago Housing Authority. All of that that I put out was about 8, 10 different areas that we were successful at was because the Chicago Housing Authority had the obligation to do that in the first place under 504. It was all a matter of going to them and convincing them to comply with that. 

504 requires that anyone that receiving like we said before, federal funds, have equal access to the disabled, and they have to conduct themself 504 evaluation. That is very important because that is the number one step in compliance with 504.

And many public housing authorities do it voluntarily, and some of them they have to be forced by HUD to do it. 

After the evaluation comes what is called a transition plan. A transition plan takes up to about 5 years or more depending on the authority, and their level of noncompliance of 504.

In the plan dictates the time line and where they are going to come into compliance with the 504. Very simple. Give you that language. 6 months in the first year and third year we're going to be doing this or that. 

When the Chicago Housing Authority was self-eval, they lack the design and construction of 504 units, which is mandates that 1% of the units should be fully accessible in a public housing authority development. 

If anyone can tell me that the percentage? 

>> AUDIENCE MEMBER: 5%. 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: 5% of fully accessible units. 

And? And what else? The other 2% for sensory. For people that visually impaired or deaf people that need some type of access, flashing alarm system, voice intercoms and all that. So 2% of those units have to be accessible for this particular disabilities and the 5% from mobility impairment. 
So 5% have to use the UFAS standard to make that unit accessible. It is very common that advocates once we work so many years, tell people -- well, our PHA is noncompliance under 502 under 504. Very simply saying they are screwing up and not giving us accessible unit. That's what it translates to. 

So we take 504 and we get HUD and we push HUD to conduct an evaluation at that particular authority. The cool thing about it is they know, the whole evaluation in different areas, and then the transitional plan deals with each one of those areas of noncompliance and gives timelines. As advocates we monitor that together with the housing authority. This is again the relationship with this authorities is very important and I can't express that enough. 

We are there to help them help us. That's the bottom line.

>> AMBER SMOCK: Can I add something? There is a second part, the first part of the slide describes the language of Section 504 which you guys have already heard. I don't think we need to restate that. 

But the second part says HUD is supposed to give guidance to persons with disabilities about their rights under Section 504 and related statutes, the exercise of those rights and what information and resources are available from HUD. 

When Beto was talking about all those different people he worked with in the past. For example, people from HUD, I mean you can call up your regional HUD office and lean on those people and tell them, you need to give us training, you need to give us information, we want to know when you have public comment periods or public meetings or whatever. Lean on your HUD people to give you all the information that they can. They need to know that you are interested and you are willing to do something with what they have got. That part seemed really important with that meeting. 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: Very important. And HUD cannot be everywhere, so they created a fund, they called education and outreach, and it is under a program that is called fair housing initiative programs.

Who are the development people here? Are there development people here? 1! 2! Oh, no. 

(Laughter.) 

2. 3. This is very important for you to be on top of this notice of fundings available from HUD. You go on the regulations and look at fair housing and education and outreach. For education and outreach you do not need those two years of experience and enforcements that were put in the books to apply for enforcement.

Education and outreach is about what Amber is saying, HUD is notifying the public about fair housing, 504, and everything that we are most of the stuff that we are covering here today. So very important to look at those areas. Usually one year, two years -- Yes? 

>> WOMAN: I have a question. When you said the 5%, 2% population, now is that separate from the NED? 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: Yes.

>> AUDIENCE MEMBER: Nonelderly disabled. 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: Yes.

>> AUDIENCE MEMBER: That's a separate number of people. Right? They can't fall into the 5%? 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: I'm sorry. The 5 and 2, doesn't deal with a population. Deals with the number of total units they have in the development. Okay? 5%. 
Our housing authority has 20,000 units. That means that now they increase the 5% to 5.5%. That means that our housing authority in Chicago, 5.5% has to be full accessible and go beyond the 7 requirements under the Fair Housing Amendments Act define and construction, 7 basic requirements. So this goes way beyond. This puts the 5 foot radius in the kitchens, 5 foot radius in the bathrooms. Not just usable kitchens and bathrooms, but they give you specifications. Bathrooms in this public housing has to be 5 foot radius and so in the kitchen. And there is quite a bit more.

Closets, shower heads, outlets, everything, doors, everything. So it deals with the total number of the unit. Now some housing authorities want to go with the development by development. HUD has stopped them from doing that. Now demanding that the entire authority, everything, even those housing, those contractors that have contract with your authority that provide affordable housing, that have partnership, they are going to have affordable housing and project based housing, we will go on project based housing later today or tomorrow what that is all about, they have to comply with the 5 and 2. 

The 2 is also the percentage of the total of the unit. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: Okay. So one other things that I want to mention is that, first of all, Access Living has a housing and policy person that will start on August 27th. He's right with us, Terrance, the blue shirt in the back. Our previous housing policy staff person was the 504 compliance person for the Chicago housing authority for several years. What she said was that there is a network of these people. All the public housing authorities that actually have 504 compliance, they have a professional association. 

So I think that that's really important to know about and if you have a 504 compliance person at your public housing authority, ask them about that national association. They have a conference every year. Ask them what they are learning. You can engage with them on that. And see if you can partner with them to teach them stuff they need to know and so forth. I thought that was very interesting. 
>> ALBERTO BARRERA: Very important to find out who this association -- there is two main associations. One is what is called PHADA, public housing authorities director associations. Most of the housing authorities are members of. 

And someone just told me how many -- I lost the sticker -- how many housing authorities there were. 24,000? 

They are mostly members of the directors association.

Then you have another association in which there are association of larger authorities, and Chicago, New York, LA and large -- Philadelphia, these larger cities are members of. ADAPT already visited one of those conferences of the PHADA. The public housing authorities director association and demanded that they conduct self-evaluations throughout the country.

>> AMBER SMOCK: We have a country in the corner from Arizona. 
(Laughter.)  

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: Arizona. We like Arizona, but not to a Mexican. 
(Laughter.)  
>> MAN: Not $so welcome.

What is the name of the association with the larger cities? Or do you know the name of the larger association?

>> AMBER SMOCK: Talking about the 504 association? 

>> MAN: No. Bay that was just -- Beto was just talking about the association for larger cities. Do you know the name of that one? 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: The PHAT -- the one the directors of the association, then you have the larger association. National association for allergic public housing authorities. 

>> MAN: -- national association for larger public housing authorities. 
>> Can you repeat that? 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: National association of larger public housing authority. "Larger" is the main key. 

>> ADAM BALLARD: We have the name over here. Someone has the name over here. 

>> WOMAN: I think the one you are referring to council of large public housing authorities. Then you also have NARO who has over 20,000 individual members. That's the national association of housing redevelopment officials. 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: Yes. Yes. You are right about NARO but that's another story about it. 

>> WOMAN: When you are talking about the very large housing authorities, that's CLPHA, council of large public housing authorities. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: One more question. 

>> WOMAN: I'm just asking, because it is really hard to write these down when there is a lot of different -- can we put them on the list maybe? Maybe the lady from HUD would write them on there for us later so we can get it exactly right. Thank you. 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: You want to write them down? 

>> WOMAN: Not now. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: Can I make a suggestion? If people know an entity or housing association people are asking about, please send the link to Daryl and Tim from ILRU, maybe we can put the link on the Wiki page so you can go back and refer to them later and when you get home. Then you can look up on that website. 
If you can share the link with the ILRU people, that would be awesome. 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: A great idea.

>> AMBER SMOCK: Move on quickly, the -- so we know that 504's 1973, 1977 it was finally authorized and signed, the regulation. And then nothing -- the next major housing law was the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988. 
Should I read what is on the page?

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: You can read what is on the page. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: For access what people know on the slide. The fair housing amendment of 1988 prohibits housing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, disability in bold. The coverage includes private housing and housing that receives federal finance assistance and state and local government housing. It is unlawful to discriminate in any aspect of selling or renting housing or deny a dwelling to buyer or renter because of that disability of that individual, an individual associated with the buyer or renter, or an individual who intends to live full-time residence. 

Other covered act include financing, zoning practices, new construction design and advertising. 

I have a second continuous slide here. Owners of housing facilities must make reasonable exceptions in their policies and operations to afford people with disabilities equal housing opportunities. 

Landlords must allow tenants with disabilities to make reasonable access-related modifications to their private living space as well as the common use space. 

And landlord not required -- RID -- how many people here do home modifications? 
(Show of hands.)

We have a lot of folks. You guys should know that. 

New multifamily housing with four or more units must be designed and built to allow access for persons with disabilities. This includes accessible common use areas, doors that are wide enough for wheelchairs, kitchens and bathrooms that allow a learn using a wheelchair to maneuver, and other adaptable features related to this unit.

Those are the slides of the fair housing amendments acts. Did you talked about this over the last couple years? Fair Housing Amendments Act? A tiny bit. 

What else should they know? 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: I mentioned before how important the designing construction. It is also important for you to know when it triggered. Sure, it was passed in 1998, but it came into effect, the design and construction came into effect everything was ready for use on March 12 of 1992. 

Any dwelling that has 4 or more units, 4 or more units. Okay? Defining a dwelling, it is a person's home. That's what it is. And then there is all kinds of funny stuff around which is the first floor, which is the second floor. 

Many newer apartments have commercial buildings on the first floor, so then the second floor becomes the first floor. That has to be also accessible because the one on the bottom has to comply with other important law which is. 

>> WOMAN: ADA. 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: Who said that? Say it louder! ADA! Very important. Okay? 

Can someone mention just a couple of those requirements? 7 requirements. Accessibility requirements. 
If you imagine yourself going into a dwelling -- this is how I'm able to remember the 7 requirements because it is an accessible route to the dwelling. One accessible entrance into the dwelling. Accessible common use areas within the dwelling or the building. Accessible routes from the lobby to your unit. The elevators or whatever, however they have it. And then accessible entrance to your unit. And then accessible routes to access your bedrooms, your living room, your kitchen. Usable kitchens and usable bathrooms. We can spend a whole day here talking about what is usable. I'm not being -- I've been called to testify on different lawsuits and through administrative judges and what have you on what that mean for some people. It all comes down to the individual need that it is usable for whom. 

But there are standards now. We mentioned the standards that covered the Fair Housing Amendments Act will be the ANSI standards A-N-S-I. American National Standards Institute. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: One thing as I've talked with people about Fair Housing Amendments Act, why this is important to the disability movement, one thing that Marca mentioned was that when the Fair Housing Amendments Act was passed, funding became available. Right? For programs that did fair housing testing. 

Later this afternoon you hear from two of our attorneys that do fair housing legal enforcement so we will have more about fair housing at that time. 

Do you have a question? Make sure the microphone is turned on and lined up. 

>> MAN: I want to make sure I heard. This law is applicable with 4 or more units? Is that right?

>> AMBER SMOCK: That's right. 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: Yes, 4 or more units. 

>> MAN: Also we talked about undue burden and undue hardship and all of that. 

When does that element or that aspect of all this come into play, say for a developer of a housing complex? 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: I'm sorry? 

>> AMBER SMOCK: Could you repeat -- actually -- can you repeat the question? Or somebody repeat the question? We weren't able to hear it. 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: Where is my hearing assistant? 
(Laughter.)  

>> MAN: In terms of undue burden and undue hardship, when does that aspect of it come into play with a unit or development? 

>> AMBER SMOCK: He's asking about undue burden and what point does the it start? 
Do you mean at what point in the rental and buying process? 

>> MAN: Let's say you have these 4 units and some guy comes in and says, you know, for me to make these units accessible for say a usable roll-in shower or something like that, or a ramp, or widening of the doorways and all of that. I'm some poor Joe blow and I can't afford to do all of this. 

When does all that come into play with these units? Under what circumstances? 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: We mentioned before the fair housing also covers reasonable accommodations and reasonable modifications. 

That means that you have the right to request to build a roll-in shower. Reasonable accommodations are covered and are allowed if you by doing your modification the safety of other people is not going to be jeopardy. That's one thing. 

>> MAN: Let me be a little more specific. 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: Undue burden comes from the public housing, because the Fair Housing Amendments Act, reasonable accommodation the burden of paying for this is you. You have to pay it under the Fair Housing Amendments Act to pay for the modifications. 

If the landlord tells you, okay, you can build that roll-in shower, and then you got to cough up some money to make it. Then he can put also, and that can be debatable later on as well, that you have to restore it to the way it was before. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: Is that clear? 

>> MAN: I think so. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: We have a question -- 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: This afternoon there is going to be -- yes. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: Two questions. One on the left from Arizona and one on the right. 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: One in the center. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: I saw Arizona first. I see the center. 
Okay. Sorry. I'm sorry.
What is your name? 

>> MAN: Daryl. 

I think part of that follow-up is maybe asking is there a point at which the landlord or property management needs -- has some obligation to pay, and I think that might be part of the question is there a point at which the landlord needs to pay and not automatically defaulting back to the tenant? 
Is that – 

>> AMBER SMOCK: Is there some point where the landlord will automatically have to pay for the modification? Or the accommodation. At any point would that happen?

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: In a reasonable accommodation under Fair Housing Amendments Act is -- doesn't hardly cost any money because it is like change of policy and the way they have been doing business. 

A reasonable accommodation could be allowing you to bring your service animal. A reasonable accommodation could be you paying the rent on the 3rd or 5th of the month because your government check comes on the 1st or second. A reasonable accommodation could be getting a parking place close to you. 

So those are reasonable accommodation -- cleaning the snow and those things of that sort. The modifications, they are your responsibilities. There is no point at where the landlord -- the landlord could then provide -- if they provide doorbells for the entire building, but you are a person that is deaf, they are going to have to provide an alarm system to let you know that someone is at the door. They have a responsible for that. 

>> MAN: Right. I think the gentleman's question from Alabama, structurally, is there some accommodations or modifications by which the landlord would need to pay? Is that part of your question, sir? 

>> MAN: Yeah. At what point is it required by the landlord to make these modifications to the home versus it falling or reverting to the tenant? The person with the disability. 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: It is difficult to say because it depends on the modification that you are looking for. Let me say that. If the landlord is providing -- as I said before -- certain entities to everyone, they have to -- you are going to have to have access to those amenities, I'm sorry, those amenities yourself. And as the responsibility of the provider to give you access to those amenities. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: Let me add something, this would be a great question to ask the fair housing attorneys who are going to be here this afternoon. 

So if you really want to get to the specific about when is it legally considered the landlord's or the tenant's thing, that might be -- 

>> MAN: It is just like, Beto just said, if there are 4 units and you have got a shower in each one of those units, 3 of them are just regular showers, I can't get a bath or a shower because I'm a wheelchair user. I need a roll-in shower. 

But a roll-in shower is going to cost about 4 or $5,000. 

At what point is it on me, rather when does it go back to the landlord?

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: The landlord is going to provide showers. This is a big thing that Chicago housing authority that most senior housing only had showers. A lot of 1-bedroom or studios. And they had a lot of rolling showers and we had to convert they will to make them roll-in showers. 

If the landlord is providing showers, they have to provide -- it is my belief, but again the legal people are going to hear but sometimes -- I better not talk bad about them on camera. I think it is a great question to ask because it has been laws already they have been more clarified what is reasonable, what is not reasonable. 

We have practices and we have won cases already that serve as examples that include your roll-in showers. And I don't know which laws it had been or referred to that has allowed to get landlords to pay for the showers. But I will imagine that if -- and this is I'm saying -- I mentioned if the landlord is providing showers for everyone, they have to provide one for you as well. 

Big question here also is also on the appliances. If the landlord is also providing a washer and a dryer, the stoves and what have you, refrigerators, would they have to make it accessible for you as well? I say, yes, and there has been a lot of debate around that with the architects and the providers. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: We have to move a little bit more quickly through the rest of the agenda. We'll take the two questions that we had and then we need to kind of keep going because we have a lot. 
Yes, sir? 

>> MAN: I was going to say that the question of modification, if it is a building of 4 units and covered under FHAA and receives -- and the project received any sort of federal funding, then it is the landlord's responsibility to cover the modifications to the apartment. 

The question comes about if and when a landlord can argue that it is an undue burden on them and to fully fund that kind of modification on their own. I don't really know the answer to that, so that is the question for the attorneys later in the afternoon. 

If it has 4 or more units and it was financed at all by federal money, then it is the landlord's responsibility. 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: The financial undue burden has been debated already for many years. An undue burden for the landlord to comply with the roll-in showers when they are also receiving federal assistance on a project based building. Project based receiving funding to support and subsidize some of the units, and they have complied with some of these requires. Then it becomes the issue then. 

We first -- and our lawyers I know what they do is they gather information about the provider and they consider all the business that they might have and lump them all together. That the profit that they have reported in previous years, and that's how I believe they determine undue financial burden for the provider. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: Okay. Moving on to the woman in the middle then we need to move on to the next slide. Yes? 

>> WOMAN: If there is a private housing complex that has more than one building, so you've got a housing complex with 3 buildings, each of the buildings have more than 4 units, do they need to make each of those buildings have accessible common use areas? Or does it have to just be 1 building within the complex? 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: Any building that has 4 or more units and they have a common use area, and it was ready for use and occupied after March 12, 1998 -- 

>> MAN: 2. 2. Thank you boss. 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: 2. Thank you, boss. 
Has to make those common use areas. 

We have a lot of fight was condo associations in this area, and we have won many of those cases, we have not loss one single case to a condo association. But the lawyers again can give you more information about that. 

But all common use areas, in this particular design and construction, and the date means a lot, you have to follow the money and you have to follow the year. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: Moving on to the next slide. I want to point out that we're trying to get through the laws here then we will get to funding streams. I'm sure there will be a lot more questions about the funding streams. I heard there has been a lot of discussion about the money. 

The next slide we have is the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. 

Basically, I mean, I hope everybody is clear that the ADA only applies in a very very limited way to housing. We're clear. Right? Okay. 

That's why the top of the slide it says the ADA tends to come up the least with disability housing advocacy, title II may require access in buildings or homes operated by state or local government. 

Title III applies to commercial facilities and public accommodations. 

The last point of 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design can be found at, -- and there is a link where you can find the link. 

The ADA we don't want to spend too much time on. If you have questions I recommend asking one of the trainers about that. Is that cool, Beto? 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: Yeah. Moving to -- I have a comment about that. I used to run -- 
(Laughter.) 

I used to manage our fair housing program, and when we would call the landlord and we would tell them that we have reasons to believe that they are in violation of the Fair Housing Amendments Act, they will send us a letter back from their attorneys, from their attorneys saying that their clients are in full compliance with the ADA. And that's when I knew that we would get them. 
(Laughter.)  

>> AMBER SMOCK: The next slide has do with the Frank Melville supportive housing investment act of 2010. 

My understanding is there was a big discussion about 811 funding, 811 during the last couple days. We're going to address 811 to the funding section. Just for right now I think we're going to want to make sure people understood that this is a law that covered 811s right now. The Frank Melville supportive housing investment act of 2010. To read it out loud for access. Modernizes and reforms HUD's Section 8111 supportive housing for persons with disabilities program creating opportunity to develop thousands of new Permanent Supportive Housing units integrated within affordable housing properties every year.

We will talk more about the 811 during the funding section. 
The next slide is about key – 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: Important for me on the Internet. The Internet is there is a summary that was prepared by the technical assistance collaborative. Good people here. 

>> ADAM BALLARD: Summary. 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: Yes. Some of the stuff that we passed out yesterday, there is a little bit -- also a brief summary of the 811 form. We're going to talk more about that. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: Okay. Cool. 
What I have next is basically a run-down of key agencies and entities that have to do with housing systems, advocacy systems, policy. 

A lot of this is going to be really obvious for quite a bunch of you but some it might not be as obvious. It is a checklist. 

Obviously the U.S. Department of housing and urban development regional offices, know where to call them. 

There is HUD's office of fair housing and equal opportunities. FHEO.

Public housing authorities. If you don't know your public housing authorities, the link is right there for to you look it up. 

State housing finance agencies. There is a link to look up what your state housing financial agencies. 

How many people work with these agencies right now? 
(Show of hands.)

I see maybe up to 10 hands. That's really important. 

There are -- you can partner with for-profit and not for profit developers. 

And then continued on the next slide, again, we mentioned the U.S. Access Board. That's really important entity to really keeping abreast of. 

Bye toe mentioned the American national standards institute. You should know your municipal, county, federal and state legislative bodies. The metro/regional planning/zoning departments. They may have opportunities for advocating for more housing. Finally metro housing departments which are separate from public housing authorities. 

Here in Chicago we have the Chicago housing authority, but the city of Chicago also within its structure has its own department of housing and economic development. We don't apparently -- the way I say the acronym is not the preferred way to say it. DHAG -- DHED. 

So those are a range of key agencies and entities that are important to people working with. 

Let me move on. This is -- 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: I think it is important to know when it comes to public housing authorities, some housing authorities have more latitude than others to provide more -- better services, or more services, or designate certain services to certain populations by doing preferences. Also by assigning certain programs for certain people. 

These agencies, out of the 3500 public housing authorities in the country, there are 34 agencies around the United States that are called MPW agencies, moving to work agencies. Moving to work agencies have a more -- have more leverage and more authority to do the preferences and to assign vouchers for people coming out of institutions, to set aside vouchers for the general people with disabilities not only in institutions to provide the modifications fundings along with this voucher and things of this sort. 

So if your agency is an MTW agency, they have a whole lot more latitude and providing our community with a whole lot more services and housing. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: I think Adam has -- 
Oh, we have to get the microphone.

>> ADAM BALLARD: I want to comment briefly on moving to work. 

It is true that it makes a lot of our innovative work as far as set asides for vouchers as possible. Especially this afternoon a preview during my community organizing panel, you might hear some not so good things about moving to work.

It also gets rid of a lot of HUD oversight fromPH -- from PHAs and allows them in some cases like Chicago unfortunately, run a lot of vacancy without any kind of penalty. So we're at a point here in Chicago we have thousands of accessible public housing units that are boarded up and have been for years. 

So moving to work is a double edged sword. Makes it possible to do some work on the vouchers, but as far as traditional public housing, it has been problematic. So you'll hear more about that later. That will be fun. 

(Laughter.) 
>> ALBERTO BARRERA: You can see who the good guy and the bad guy are, come from the housing authority. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: May be different in different areas, depending on where you are at. 

Let's move on quickly, I have a slide that says a list of housing types. But I have seen and I think Ann had a similar slide and you guys probably covered this information. Provide a, -- private -- skip that one. 

I have this slide on voucher options. I think there is a question of do we want to talk further about voucher options? Or are we all good understanding Section 8 and vouchers laws? We want to talk more about it?

We need to talk more -- 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: Basically there are 2 main type of vouchers that are issued by HUD, the federal housing and urban development. Project and tenant based. It is self-explanatory. 

Project-based vouchers goes with the unit. You live in the unit, you pay 30% of your income in that unit. You move out of the unit, you lost that. 

Someone else comes, that unit is subsidized. 

They get those units most of the time, providers get a number of those units working with their local public housing authority or directly with HUD. 

Out of 100 units or 50 units 10% or 5% are going to be subsidized. Many providers that have mixed income, mixed income -- they provide housing to mixed income such as tax credits, HOME funds, CBBB funds, 811 funds now and also directly from HUD, they have those project-based units. 

Those project based units have to comply with UFAS. With those standards now. 

The other voucher is the one that is portable and where the tenant has, it is tenant based. That's your voucher. There are people across the country that have those vouchers. Those vouchers are portable. You can go anywhere you want, in any state including Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and Alaska. But who wants to go to Alaska? 

(Laughter.) 

That's what it is. Vouchers -- and those vouchers are returned to the public housing authority when they are no longer needed. People die and move, what have you, they get rich, they Ron the lottery, they don't need the voucher. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: So the slide that I have up, there are a couple corrections need to be made to the slide. One is the first line says Section 8 tenant or project based, needs to say Section 8 project based. Right? 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: Right. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: Cross out tenant. Section 8 is project based. 

Second one says housing choice vouchers, tenant based, that's okay. 

The third line is another change. Secondary source, vouchers made available through recidivism. Better word than recidivism is turnover. Use the word turnover, people know what you are talking about. 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: Steve gold. Who heard of him? 
(Show of hands.)

My man. All right! You know more about Steve gold than Ed Roberts? Or Ron Mays?

Great guy. 

Right now, he has a list out on his site claiming or saying he has the proof that HUD has more than 55,000 vouchers for people with disabilities, and he goes further by naming those authorities the state and how much vouchers they are not accountable. Okay? 

That form of housing committee and met with Representative Maxine Waters and Bonnie (inaudible) to find out about these vouchers. This is one of the main reasons that there is language in the reform 811 program that vouchers that were designated to a particular popular has to be -- when will is turnover, they have to be issued to the same population. It is very, very important. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: One more thing I would like to add really quickly about vouchers before we move on to the funding stream is that at Access Living when we do community integration, we're transitioning people into the community, 91% of the people that we move have housing choice voucher. That's what we've been able to get to move people into the community. 

So they are the kind of voucher that follows them wherever it is they want to go. Right? But it might be different in your community. 
Go ahead. 

>> WOMAN: Since there was a clarification on the Section 8 and the housing choice vouchers, are both of those or one of those a able to transfer as you were saying something about once they move, they lose it? I thought they were transferable. 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: You do not lose your voucher. If you have your voucher, you want to move, and then you contact your housing authority, let them know that you want to move, and you are allowed to move. Of course, you can move to another -- find another landlord that would accept your voucher. 

>> WOMAN: Is that with either one? The Section 8 voucher and the -- 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: Just the tenant-based. The other one was projects. That one project stays where the unit is forever and ever. 

>> WOMAN: Okay. That's the clarification I needed. 

>> ADAM BALLARD: Can I have one more word?

So Section 8, can either be tenant based voucher, which is the Housing Choice Voucher or it can be project based. So a Section 8 voucher is a housing choice voucher. Everybody clear on that? Section 8 can also be project-based. I want to make sure everyone is clear. 

>> WOMAN: I'm still confused, because we just crossed out tenant-based on the Section 8. 

>> ADAM BALLARD: Section 8 can either be project based or tenant based. If it is tenant based it is a housing choice voucher. It is the new name for the tenant based Section 8 program. 

>> WOMAN: Got it. Thank you. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: Person in the back. 

>> MAN: I hope not to confuse it more, but
Section 8 can also be homeownership program. Section 8 is the umbrella under which you get project-based housing, under which you get a Housing Choice Voucher. Buildings can have a mixture of both. 

There can be a certain number of units in the building that are project-based, and there can be individuals in the same building using their Housing Choice Voucher. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: I'll tell you, understanding the differences between the vouchers, I mean it is one to get confident with that, because I feel like unless have you a solid understanding of these programs you are going to tank on your systems advocacy. When you are going out there and saying I need more vouchers and the person says what kind are you talking about, and you don't know, that would be a big problem. 
So, yes, Ma'am in the pink shirt? 

>> WOMAN: I'm glad we're talking about this because I get really confused from a advocacy point of view, from a policy point of view when around the table people start talking about taking vouchers and tying them to project-based that were portable vouchers as a leveraging point, tying them with tax credits and all of this to get to make more affordable. 

And you are like, oh, no, no, no, don't take those vouchers. And then other advocates are saying, no, this is okay because it is making more affordable housing. It seems wrong. I don't know, I would just like to hear at some point today us talk about this issue. 

I struggle with it. 
(Not hearing) 

>> ADAM BALLARD: I was trying to relay the
question to him so he could answer it. That's all. 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: Again, at the beginning of the slide we mentioned two types of vouchers. And that's what it is. Tenant-based and project-based. And we already defined project-based is a voucher that is in the unit. Assistant to the unit. 

Like Adam clarified that a home choice voucher is a tenant-based voucher. There are other developments, there are developments of affordable housing that the developer uses different resources to develop affordable housing. And then at the end they get tenant-based vouchers for their units. Yes, they do that. 

They are state run sometimes, but some finance agencies are able to get vouchers for that particular development. They have (inaudible) units, they have fair market units, they have units that are also project-based units. There is also type mixed financing that goes into the development. 

>> WOMAN: Right. I guess from an advocacy point of view though, if your state has just such limited vouchers, I mean you talk about 91% of the people that you are transitioning have choice vouchers to get out with, if your state is limited, and then you see those limited resources being tied to project-based housing, then from an advocacy point of view it is a real challenge because you know you need affordable housing but you also are struggling with -- you are not going to be able to get people out of institutions if you don't have those vouchers. 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: You are absolutely right. The only -- we have run a very successful (inaudible) to the program at Access Living. One of the main reasons -- or two main reasons, we got excellent staff, the other one because we give vouchers. To get them out. Okay? 

We know that the main barrier to get people out is housing. Is vouchers. Okay? We know that. We know about that. Now we have conferences and meetings like this to discuss different resources or how to advocate and develop different resources so we can get our people out. 

Either through vouchers, through more tenant-based, through state being more creative, out of the 811 program and what have you. 

Now Vermont also mentioned homeownership. Very important. Many public housing authorities across the state have homeownership programs that people with the vouchers can also use to pay mortgages. Okay? For people with disabilities, they can have a mortgage up to 30 years. A 30-year fixed. The vouchers will also pay that mortgage. Okay?

>> AMBER SMOCK: I want to add a little piece of information to put that 91% figure into some context. 
In the last 18 months to 2 years Access Living has transitioned 86 people into the community. So when I say 91% right now, I'm talking about 91% of those 86 people. 

Half of those people moved under money follows the person. Other people were moved under the statewide Center for Independent Living reintegration program. I want to put a context on there. 

The reason I wasn't here yesterday morning was because I spent 3 hours at a hearing with the State of Illinois talking about rebalancing efforts. The statistics come from that testimony that we were doing yesterday. 

Anyway, vouchers, we're going to continue talking about them especially tomorrow morning I think. When you are going to have a panel presentation about partnership with -- between the Chicago housing authority, Access Living, and equality facilities fund. 

I will talk about vouchers. 
Raise your hand if you feel pretty confident in your knowledge about vouchers?

(Show of hands.)

Keep your hands up. Everybody whose hands are down, look at those people and go up to those folks and say, can you help me clarify what is going on with vouchers? Sometimes you need one on one discussion to really kind of hammer it out. 

Moving on, Beto, I love this slide. Show me the money! Key funding streams. Okay? 

So the first slide under key funding streams is, Section 8, going back to Section 8. We just basically went over this information, but the additional information I would just say is, okay, Section 8 serves 3.1 million people. Right? 

Section 8, the largest ones housing choice voucher and pays 2.1 million people. So housing choice vouchers is the largest kind out there.

I think the rest of it we've already covered. We just covered Section 8 voucher already.

Moving on to Section 811. Yay! Sorry. 
Do you want to talk about -- 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: I think we going to discuss more about the 811 tomorrow morning in reference to the latest notice of funding that's available come out. But it has been a struggle by many advocates across the country to reform the 811 program. 

When DRACH, the group that was formed on the takeover of the conference I was talking about earlier, we targeted the 811 program, that silo, that house people with disabilities segregated settings, and did all kind -- we join up with ADAPT, and we did all kinds of demonstration. We even built a tent city up at HUD. We did everything possible that we can do on advocacy and protest and delegations. We testified before the (inaudible) banking housing committee. Had meetings with -- everything we could possible to reform the 811 program. 

There were other organizations that were very instrumental. And also CCE -- there were many people that were focusing on this. 

The time has come where we talked about that we evolve as advocates. Now our youth is demanding more integration. They are pushing us old timers about creating more integration. They want to live like anyone else out in the community. 811 was formed to integrate, to use the funding to integrate people. 

I remember one time when we had the discussion with Congressman Bonnie Frank, one of my heroes and she ended up throwing us in jail, was that he said, directly to me, what you are telling me -- when we asked him about integrated 811 funds, he said you want me to -- you want the cake and eat it too. So you want to use segregated funding to integrate people. So you want to integrate as well. I said -- eat the cake, too. I said, yes, sir, I don't see anything wrong with that. To integrate, to use the money with integration. 

And through the efforts of many other disability organizations who were able to have legislation and to amend that, we're going to go more into that, but it was originally designed to do -- use the capital funding, the construction of the units, integrated units now, and those units are going to come with project-based assistance. Not only capital funds or development funding, but also now rental assist assistance, for 15 up to 30 years depending on the proposal. 

Now we have to use other resources as well. The providers or the builders have to use HOME funds for instance and other source of funding. It is not a complex thing. Very easy to understand. This is to house the very poorest of the poor people with disabilities. It is a great reform. Later on it is going to get better, but right now this is what we have. 

There are many people in this room that Nick work for, Ann, Daryl, a lot of us have been involved in this reform section. So remember this is capital funding together with project-based assistance. That's how the money goes to -- this money is given to finance agencies, state finance agencies, and then they in turn send out requests for proposals, RFPs, to different not for profit developers of affordable housing. And this is the regulation that you going to use -- apply for the money, this is what you have to do. Very simple. Okay? To house the poorest of the poor. 
Any questions on that? 

>> AMBER SMOCK: We have 35 minutes left so we'll keep going. 
The next one is section 202. Does anybody here do work with section 202 housing?

(Show of hands.)

A few hands. Okay. 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: You want to explain something what the 202 is? One of you raising -- what is a 202? 
(Laughter.) 

>> WOMAN: I have to be The New Yorker backup. What's up with that? So 202 is for elderly, the elderly population. 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: To house people that are 62 and older. The most powerful advocates in our country. (Speaking Spanish) people of the third generation. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: Let me also add, the slide I also have says provides low income seniors options to live independently but in an environment that provides support activities like cleaning, cooking, transportation. 
Of course there will be a lot of older people with disabilities living. But there were a couple things that we wanted to add. 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: Yes. I don't know if we're going to discuss this later on today or tomorrow, but it is also important that on 202s, so on senior housing they call it, senior housing, you know that when Congress passed the funding and approval for senior housing, they also Congress said that people under 55 with disabilities will be allowed to live in those buildings. 

Then about 10, 12 years ago there was this movement from the senior population and their advocates to change and to create senior housing designated plans. Not to allow anyone younger than 62 to occupy a unit. Someone at 60 to apply for it and move in when they were 62. They called it senior housing designated plans. 

So about maybe 15 years ago this movement started to kind of I call it because (inaudible) we tried meeting with senior advocacy to put some negotiate something out of them, but the good thing also that Congress said that if any authority, housing authority that has this program, the 202 program, if they wanted a designated seniors only, they had to come up with a plan on what they are going to do with the individuals that are already under 62 living there and those that want to apply that are on the waiting list, and those that want to apply. They have to come up with a plan geographically plan over available housing, subsidized housing for people with disabilities. 

So Congress didn't make it really easy. But politics is politics. The Mayor Daley in Chicago was -- and the aldermen in the city of Chicago got their head banged that we got to get these drug addicts out of there, there is prostitution and all drugs in there, so needless to say Chicago the 50 buildings of senior housing, that were all designated seniors only. That was in 1997.

Since then, DRACH has been on the front fighting with the Chicago Housing Authority, the board, with the politicians, we started a whole campaign to lower the age to 55. And we were successful. To change occupancy agency and lower it to 55 in certain developments. They also gave us a condition. Not in all of it. 

So what they are giving us are those hard to rent buildings to put -- we took it. Because it is a steppingstone to go now -- our next current demand is let's do it in all developments, be able to apply it in all these development, and also lower the age now to 50. It is very important that when your public housing authority is designated, or has designated all of the senior units, seniors only, that means only one thing, that we lost a lot of housing. People with disabilities lost a lot of housing. 

So we have to -- and with the public housing authority, and the different advocacy groups to put something on those plans that will continue to give us some type of housing. It is very important to look at that. 

If you want to know more about senior housing designations, you can contact Adam and then he will forward you more information about advocacy and organizing around that issue. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: I really would have liked to have seen the bureaucrats faces the day you guys first announced, you know what? We'd like to change the age. And I'm sure they are just kind of like, but you can't be serious! You can't just change the age! You know? But I think it is a good example of thinking outside of the box in terms of the housing opportunities that are out there. 

So it seems like housing choices are limited. The programs are static. That's not true. You can change them. This is a good example of it. 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: Any time the housing authority, any public entity that applies for funding, under the law they have to conduct public hearings. Very important. Sometimes you don't even know they are going on. You have to get on their websites and look for the public hearing. And where we took, most of DRACH members, to demand to lower the age. And we would not let them conduct business until we conduct more meetings. And eventually we were successful. 

Now the first, three months later after it was implemented, they told us how great they are doing. Because now HUD had given them -- also, you have to have that unit, you got to be 95% occupancy in all these units, or else we're not going to give you money for that particular unit.

So by allowing to lowering the age, they don't have the vacancy problem that CHA they used to have. So now they pat us on the back, and order us coffee, now let's lower it to 50. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: We have other slides to move on to. Some we will spend less time on than others. 

Beto mentioned HOPWA earlier in the morning. Are folks familiar with HOPWA. Housing opportunities for persons with AIDS? Not so much? Okay.

Let me read this one out.

HOPWA funding provides housing assistance and related supportive services and grantees are encouraged to develop communitywide strategies and form partnerships with area nonprofit organizations. It provides wide range of housing, social services, and program planning development costs. Not limited to acquisition rehabilitation, new construction of housing units, costs for facility operations. Rental assistance and short term payments to prevent homelessness.

My understanding funding for this used to be big, there was a really big need for it. These days the need is less so the funds are a lot fewer than they used to be. That's another funding stream that's out there. 

Oh, HOPWA can also be used for healthcare and mental health services, chemical dependency treatment, 

The next slide is about community development block grants. I was happy to have a conversation with a couple people last night about CDBG money. We talked about CDBG. 

And CDBG is -- do you want to do -- you want me to do this? 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: Everyone knows what community development grants are. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: Wait a minute. How many people know what CDBG grants are? Okay. A lot of people do. How many people know that sometimes CDBG can be used for things other than housing? 
(Show of hands.)

We have a few people. I know you know now from last night. 

So we have a mix of understanding. I'm going to read the first line here. It says aims to ensure decent affordable housing to provide services to the most vulnerable in our communities. That's language from a website. I did not put that there, okay? 

And to create jobs through expansion and retention of businesses. 

But you can see that CDBG appropriations is allocated between states and local jurisdictions called nonentitlement and entitlement communities. 

Entitlement communities are comprised with central cities. At least 50,000. And urban counties with population of 200,000 or more.

States distribute CDBG funds to nonentitlement funds identify HUD determines the amount of each grant by using a formula comprised of several measures of community need, inducing -- 

How many people centers actually use CDBG money right now? 
(Show of hands.)

How many people would like to know how to apply for CDBG funds? 
(Show of hands.)

Okay. How many people know how to do that.

(Show of hands.)

Okay. Can you guys talk to each other? Please, find each other at lunch or in the hallway and if you were paying attention, but how to apply for CDBG funds. Access Living has CDBG funds. 

Particularly I think people at tomorrow's breakout panel session they will be able to talk about that. 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: One very important thing about community development grants is the public hearings that they have. Each year it this here city has over 50,000 population, they are entitled to request block grants from the federal government. The federal government to conduct whatever it is. That's a great opportunity to go on record that you need more accessible affordable housing. That you need your parks to be more accessible. To all the libraries to be more accessible. 

This is public hearings, we don't use them as advocates as much as we should use them. And it is a great tool to get our advocates or consumers involved. You send them. Okay? You are crying for housing, you go to that hearing and you let them know. Public hearings. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: The next one, Neighborhood Stabilization Program. I'm going to ask you again, who is familiar with Neighborhood Stabilization Program. A few. Awesome. 

We also saw a lot of people that don't. 

The slide says that neighborhood stabilization, NSP funds are a type of community development block grant. They are aimed at stabilizing communities that are suffering from foreclosures and abandonment. I'm sure that does describe quite a lot of people's communities, foreclosures and so forth. 

Through the purchase of redevelopment and foreclosed and abandoned homes, and residential properties, the goal of the program is being realized. 

They want to push the program and get people in. There is 3 types of NSP. The first one is NSP1. By the wear, thanks to Beto, the reminder was put forward that NSP has to comply with 504. Okay? So write the number 504 next to NSP. That's really important to know. 

So NSP1 of the 3 categories, I'm going to -- there is a little blah blah. Okay, NSP1 provides grants to all states and selected and local government on a formula basis. 

NSP2 provides grants to states, local and governments nonprofits and the consortium of nonprofit entities on a competitive basis. 

I think the recovery act also authorized HUD NSP-TA which is a 50 million allocation to people not necessarily us. 

NSP3 provides grants to all select governs on a formula basis. 

There is a question of how much NSP money is out there. Can you get some? What can you use it for? How can you make sure it is 504 compliant. And so forth. 

I don't know if anybody has examples. 

Yeah, Adam, do you have something to say about it? Because I see a look on your face. 

>> ADAM BALLARD: So my understanding is that there is still some NSP3 money floating around, but not much. NSP1 and NSP2 are gone. They are used up. And currently, the current THUD bill, trains and HUD -- transportation and HUD, has no money for NSP 4 this year. There is a little bit of NSP money left, not a whole lot. If you find it, grab it. 

And advocate for NSP 4. There is a chance it could get put back in for this year. If it doesn't get back in this year, let's fight for it in FY 14. It is a cool program and it makes a lot of sense to take some foreclosed properties and use it for our people. Why not? 

>> AMBER SMOCK: What is the best way for recommend people to stay abreast on when the funding opportunities become available? 

>> ADAM BALLARD: Keep an eye on the HUD budget process. There is likely not to be a HUD budget passed until the -- until after the lame duck session. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: Are there list serves people can join? 

>> ADAM BALLARD: Probably the easiest way is the national low income housing coalition. Yeah. They do a really good job of keeping people abreast of the
developments in the HUD budget process. So I would Google them, find them, because they have really good news, good analysis of where the HUD budget is at. 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: Neighborhood stabilization programs come through the cities. The cities -- oh I'm sorry. Question over there. 

>> WOMAN: As a staff person that administers HUD programs, I'll confirm what Adam said is that NSP1 and 2 are completely over. NSP3 has very limited dollars that are very difficult to access. 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: The money goes into your city. Or to your counties. Sometimes different counties get together and apply for NSP money, and their job is to disseminate that money to developers, that are in turn going to purchase foreclosure homes. And rehab them and sell them. 

Now as disability organizations, we can apply for a piece of that money also to work with those developers to comply with 504, or to make those homes at least visitable. There is a lot of things we can do as a community to put an impact on the neighborhood stabilization programs funding. 

This is an opportunity we cannot lose. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: Right. Moving on, we have about 20 minutes and we have several slides, so we'll go fast. 

How about if I go fast and you fill in when I need you. 

We know that capital budgets are an opportunity for funding for housing. Your state's capital budget for construction. If possible, consider tracking the development and allocation of state capital dollars. I know a lot of us track the state general revenue dollars because we want to make sure our Centers for Independent Living are funded. 

The other budget that goes on is the capital budget. You want to let your legislators know how the money can improve access. 

Also a city and region may have a capital budget you can monitor. 

Public and private partnerships are possible. You'll hear about one of them together, the HOME first Illinois project. You can encourage the state and private entities to work together to develop projects that are accessible for people with disabilities, or to answer specific needs. People coming out of nursing facilities or other types of institutional settings. 

We have funding sources for money follows the person. In some ways MFP helps with some sort of housing issues. Right? So MFP is a Medicaid fund to cover the cost of setting up an apartment and transition expenses. 

But it doesn't necessarily -- it doesn't do the rental assistance. Right? It helps with the cost of transition but it doesn't do the rental assistance which is why at Access Living we have this thing called housing services to help people locate and find and apply for and use housing choice vouchers and so forth. 

So MFP has limitations, but it does help with getting a place to live. 

We know that Medicaid law prohibits use of the dollars for rent, except for developmental disabilities with some limitations. 

Let me go to HOME funds. HOME funds are a big thing. 

How many people -- how many states here use HOME funds for rental assistance? 
(Show of hands.)

So we have a few people. 

I know Texas is a big one. Where are you guys from here? 

>> AUDIENCE MEMBER: New York. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: A bunch of people from other states that are successful using that. 

Illinois has its back up against the wall and will not use HOME funds for rental assistance right now. So HOME funds, let me just read this out to get everybody on the same page. 

HOME is the largest federal block grant to state and local government designed exclusively to create affordable housing for low income household. 

Each year it allocates about 2 billion dollars among the states and hundreds of localities nationwide. 

Now notice I didn't say how much we actually get in your individual area. Maybe a lot or a little depends. 

But HUD says that HOME funds are awarded annually as formula grants. HUD establishes HOME Investment Trust Funds for each grantee, providing a line of credit that the jurisdiction may draw upon. The program's flexibility allows states and local governments to use HOME funds for grants, direct loans, loan guarantees, or other forms of credit enhancement, or rental assistance or security deposits. Even though HUD says you can use it for rental, the State of Illinois prefers to use it for development. 

I don't know if you guys want a couple words on HOME fund. 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: Other than development or capital budget, the public/private partnership, remember our hole is to ensure compliance of 504. Right? -- our role is to ensure compliance with 504. 

This is where we -- this is our in to get part of that money. Okay? I'll be blunt about it. We need that money for education, to create more affordable housing for our community. 

In reference to the HOME funds, billions of dollars go into these block grants. Each state gets different types of funding. It is only 13 states in the country that use it for rental assistance. Tenant-based rental assistance. They provide capital funding for the development of affordable housing, in the whole country only about 5% of that money is used -- is affordable to our community. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: One thing, okay, so in the interest of making sure people have access to information about this stuff, one source of information about the use of HOME funds is the Steve gold list serve. Do people subscribe to the Steve -- Steve Gold the nuggets of wisdom. He'll send out announcements or recaps of who is using what. Look at things naturally to say, okay, these states are using HOME funds, these states are not. Things to do with Olmstead and (inaudible) that's one source of information. 
>> ALBERTO BARRERA: We cannot express hard enough -- sorry. Question. 

>> WOMAN: Although that you mentioned that across the countries the funds are used for development, I can tell you that as part of the consolidated planning process the public hearings that are held, the communities will listen to what the public says.

We have one coming up the first week of September, and if I get 10 people there, I'm going to be happy. It is just that really with the notices and everything that go out, there really just isn't the public participation. 

And if you have a delegation of folks that show up and say this is what we want, we're going to listen to you. 
(Applause.) 

>> AMBER SMOCK: Exactly. Totally. 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: We took that away, that's exactly what we were going to say. Our involvement in the consolidated plans, our involvement on the analysis of an impediment, our involvement and affirmatively furthering fair housing for our community is very important. There are billions of dollars that are being used and excluding the vast majority of our people. That's the bottom line. And we should be outraged about that! 

>> AMBER SMOCK: A couple more housing choice. 

By the way, Beto has an additional sheet to put up on the Wiki about a few extra sources of -- 

Yeah. Okay. 

>> ADAM BALLARD: Another resource if you want to find out how HOME dollars are allocated in your state is the HUD dashboard. Just Google HUD dashboard and you will get there. It is like a database of public information. You can find out how many HOME dollars your state gets. You can break it down as far as what money goes to what. HOME dashboard is good. It is good for CDBG, too. 

If you want to know just in general how much your state is getting from HUD, go to the HUD dashboard. 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: Some states have what is called bridge stunned funds -- funding. Bridge subsidies. We will put that on the net also. Bridge funding. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: Going to affordable housing trust fund. This is an important opportunity for systems advocacy to try to secure funding for people (inaudible) 
The national housing trust fund establishes provision of the housing and economic recovery act of 2008. Advocates are now focused on securing permanent funding for the program. 

I know Adam has been tracking, right? Tracking that process. At the state level. Just at the state level? Okay. Because in Illinois we're also talking about the Illinois affordable housing trust fund. 

You have the national one and you have the state one. 

The national housing trust fund if it is capitalized, it will provide money to build, preserve and rehabilitate rental homes that are affordable for extremely and very low income households. It is a permanent program, the things with the bridge fund and HOME fund, it is two years. This is a permanent program that will have dedicated funding not subject to the annual appropriations process. Which sounds great to me.

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: Let me say about these trust funds. They are very important also for our community. They are mostly money that the state generates in Illinois is through a real estate small part of the taxes. 1% goes into the fund of we generate $12 million in Chicago alone for this fund. Right now it is being closed and does what Adam and his groups are doing to open it up. 

>> ADAM BALLARD: They are open now. We won. 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: We won. We'll celebrate either. One of those Margaret a -- margaritas. 

When we were fighting for the trust fund in Illinois, we joined other coalitions and we were careful not to say the word set aside for people with disabilities. We said instead, let's dedicate 30% of these funds for people that are making 15% or less of the area median income. That covers every person that is on SSI or SSDI. And we were able to goat it.

So it was really good. This money goes to landlords. This is ma and pa landlords. These are 1, 2, 3-flat, single family homes. It is a great to have one, to fight for one of these things. If you don't have one right now, we strongly encourage. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: Okay. 

>> ADAM BALLARD: Again, on the state level there were two funds that we were fighting to get reopened. One was the statewide affordable housing trust fund which doesn't only fund construction. We did get that reopened back in January. And our way at least for our community out that is we got -- I can't remember how much, 15% maybe set aside for construction for new housing for disabled veterans. That was our win out of that. 

More recently the second program is called the rental housing support program fund, how that works in Illinois is there is a fee on recordation of deeds in Illinois. Every time a deed is recorded, a certain fee goes into this fund. It is set aside to provide rental assistance. Not construction. It provides rental assistance, project-based rental assistance. And like Beto says it goes to landlords. They agree to have their unit be subsidized and they open it up. 

The win for us is now the rental support housing fund is been open for (inaudible) contracts, a lot of it, a big chunk is going to supportive housing. We're using rental housing support fund here in Illinois to pay for rental subsidies and make supported housing possible. That's what we did with those funds in Illinois. 

If you don't have -- if your state doesn't have both funds like this, it might be called something else, if your state doesn't have both of these funds, one that funds construction and one that funds rental assistance, organize and make it happen. Bye. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: Tim and Darryl, is it okay if we do 5 minutes over? Is that okay? 5 minutes over? 

>> We'll give you 5 minutes. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: I know you have a question. 

>> WOMAN: On that, Adam, was that ledge -- had you to create policy that designated a certain percentage of that fee to go to that? 

>> ADAM BALLARD: Those funds had already been created and it was actually homelessness advocates that created those funds. But what happened was that a couple years ago the governor got permission from the legislature to freeze these funds and bar row from them to pay off -- borrow from them to pay off other bills. Because our state like many other states are in debt. It didn't repay it and there was no new money coming out of those funds for what they were designed for. 

Our win was getting those funds reopened again. We weren't heavily involved in the effort to create those funds but we were involved in the effort to get them reopened. 

>> WOMAN: In Maryland it gets real -- balance I'm sorry, we --

>> ADAM BALLARD: I'm sorry, we in an effort to get that created. I wasn't here. 

>> WOMAN: In Maryland it is hard to get funding set aside for that. Did you do it all framing it in for people that are at 15% or less of poverty. Seems like that's one of our tools you are using, rather than saying for people with disabilities, you are saying for people with 15% of population.

>> AMBER SMOCK: Feel free to continue the discussion after the presentation about that particular thing. Know Adam will be happy to talk about people about that. Certainly be interested in learning from other states about what worked for you.

I want to quickly make sure we talked about the Low Income Housing Tax Credit. Because my understanding is there might be some lack of clarity about this particular thing. The low income tax credit program is supposed to finance the development of affordable rental housing for low income households. So it is not rental assistance, it is development. Increasing the supply of housing that's available out there. 

There anybody who is not clear on that point, I'm saying. But it is a possible opportunity to create more housing options. And if you want to talk more about that, we can later in the day.

I want to get to this list that we have here about opportunities to impact funding. 

There is two slides. So we were brainstorming about, if we had to make up a list of all the possible ways you had to impact funding or availability, et cetera, what are some brainstorm ideas. This is what we came up with. Maybe you have your own.

We know that Notice of Funding Availability, NOFAs, when HUD issues a NOFA either for public comment or for application or whatever, those things you want to grab on to. A NOFA is incredibly important. And you could probably go to the HUD dashboard to find out when those are coming out. 

It is also important to educate local state and federal policy makers about what you want. You can say we need affordable accessible integrated housing but it would be nice if we could go to them and say, I've got 100 people on a waiting list to get out of my area. I want you to figure out -- help me figure out how to find housing for those 100 people. Start coming to them with specific numbers and things that they can engage in, because people will tell you, oh, I agree, we need to have affordable accessible integrated housing, but they need to know where and how much and start from there. 

Achieving success. The reason I put the phrase achieving success down there and creating innovative models, I think as a lot of you know, if you build something and it works successfully, that helps you drawdown more dollars. Success attracts more money for your program. Right? So building something successful at your center is really important. 

This thing down here that says commenting on rule making, an ANPRM is an acknowledgment of proposed rule making. It is always good to change rules. HUD issues an announcement for public rule making comments, it is a chance to say, hey, HUD, your rule should say this. The dashboard is a good tool to find out about that.

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: There is also another funding opportunity, (inaudible) have been struggle to redefine homelessness and HUD. We have been a little bit
successful but not completely successful in redefining homelessness to include people in nursing homes as homelessness. We going to talk more about it hopefully tomorrow. If not, Adam is going to be available 4/7. -- 24/7. 
(Laughter.) 

If you buy him wine. 
(Laughter.) 

Okay. I think a lot of people also -- 

>> AMBER SMOCK: People know that state consolidated plans, these are plans that dictate how your (inaudible) is going (inaudible). I think we always find ourselves at the short end of the stick. Like somebody says, oh, this money is available and you have to use it a certain way. Well, it is nice to be able to get in at the point of the process before they say you have to use it in a certain way. Right? Like make their rules fit what you need. So commenting on content is important.

Same thing with crafting or commenting on public housing authority administrative plans. It is possible to change the rules in your local public housing authority by saying, we think you should be doing business this way or that way, et cetera. So if -- one of the most frustrating things is, they set up the rules and they are like, we can't do anything about it. And then you are kind of like, well, people! So changing their administrative plans to run the PHA the way you want it would be good. 

Then will is participation in local and regional planning efforts. And Beto pointed out I think highlighted this morning that building relationships is one of the most valuable things you can do in this work. Don't do it alone. When all else face, direct action. 

(Applause.) 

Take over that conference. Disrupt a meeting. I mean when you hit the point where things are completely unacceptable, what are you going to do? Sit there and take it? So you have to be prepared to, you know, if you need to do this with a partner, do direct action, et cetera, there comes a time when it is just absolutely unacceptable that the stuff is happening in your community is going on. It is unacceptable. 

And nobody is paying attention or doing anything about it, that might be time for direct action. 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: Direct action is -- comes in different forms. Not necessarily you do whatever you like to do. Block doors and block people and get arrested. It doesn't have to be that. But ultimately could be necessary. 

But also e-mailing, sending out a-- unannounced delegations. Educating your consumers. Going with them to a hearing. All of that is direct action. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: Yeah, they need to know that you cannot be ignored. 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: Right. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: As long as they think there is a 1% changes you could be -- 1% chance you could be ignored, they will take it. They need to know there is no way they are going to get away with it. 

As the director of advocacy for Access Living, I also want to point out -- let me see, so my department at Access Living, the advocacy department there are 15 or 16 staffers, some work on policy, some work on organizing. These things have to work together. So my particular challenge and the area of housing is how do we get these two things to kind of balance each other out. When policy people have pushed as far as they can go, one of the times organizers to set up. When the organizers are lis he can to the community -- listening to the community and they are hearing, there is a concern I have to address it, how do they transfer it to policy folks. 

One if there is a time when the policy person is working with somebody, that the organizers want to take direct action on. What is my job? Right? So I just want to make these few points about the coordination of policy and organizing work which is that, housing is an enormous field with lots of money and lots of players. Right? There is going to be players you don't know about. 

Everybody does have a role to play. And we have power in numbers as you pointed out. Coalitions and allies are important. Factionalism is a big issue. Don't allow factional issue or outside pressure to divide and conquer you. We are not here for burgers and cookies. Right? We are not here for a pat on the head. We're here to do business. 

We also want to make sure that working with policy and organizing share information, policy folks and organizing folks have access to unique dollars. 

You need clear goals for your agenda. Sticking to them. 

Every meeting counts. You are on message all the time. If you show up to a meeting and you sit there and you didn't say anything about your community agenda, why were you there? So people could look at you? You need to make an impact at every meeting. Every meeting has to have a purpose. 

Between policy and organizing you also want to work together to secure funding so you can sustain your work. So those of how do grant writing, et cetera, Beto and Adam and (inaudible) are not sitting here and their grant period is up in two years and then they are going to be gone. We expect to keep them for the long haul working on organizing. 

Investing in that time as administrators is incredibly important. Which as I said we're in it for the long haul. 
Is the last one.

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: I want to say that there is a lot of money on it. There is money out there that is going to the wrong places. Because when it doesn't come to integrate our community, to house our community, it is going to the wrong places. 

There are many government and other state departments that are doing administrative plans without us. Remember the old saying, nothing about us without us. Go out there fiercely and go get that money and free our people. 

>> AMBER SMOCK: Let's free our people! 
Okay, right now it is just after 12:30. I know -- how many people are ready for lunch? 
(Show of hands.)

So that's the end of this particular presentation. I hope it was helpful or thought provoking. I hope it inspires people to talk to each other. And I would like to kind of roll this over to Tim to direct us on our next steps. 

>> ALBERTO BARRERA: Thank you. 
(Applause.) 

Thank you for coming today.