(This letter was sent to Commissioner Chris Winters on Friday, June 28, by Brenda Siegel, director of End Homelessness Vermont, on behalf of dozens of Vermonters living with disabilities and experiencing homelessness about the barriers that are being put up to people with disabilities accessing emergency housing starting last week.)
Dear Commissioner Winters:
We are people living with disabilities impacted by changing rules and requirements created by the Department of Children and Families/Economic Services Division beginning July 1. We’re aware that the Legislature worked to expand the definition of disability to better meet the intent of the Americans With Disabilities Act. We come to you as people receiving SSDI and people who have a 201G-VR or Emergency Housing Disability Variance Request Form or who live with disabilities.
Repeatedly over many years and especially the last four months, barriers have been put in the way of our accessing emergency housing. On March 14 and 15, many of us were put in a precarious and stressful position to access medical care urgently and without notice to verify our disability.
As of July 1, DCF/ESD plans to implement several requirements that will impact us and for some of us, make it near impossible for us to access benefits for which we’re eligible. Some of us need extra support to make an appointment, get to an appointment, be at an appointment, and complete paperwork. No single provider can help us to overcome these hurdles. It is too much for any provider as well.
The proposed form 201G-VR, is an overreach over what we are required to prove for eligibility under Act 113. The questions posed are an invasion of privacy and go beyond what is required for us to qualify for benefits with a disability. They err on the side of suggesting a violation of the Olmstead Decision, which gives us autonomy in living in a community if that is our preference as opposed to a facility. It wouldn’t be appropriate for a medical provider to dictate this for the purpose of eligibility of benefits. Nor is it the right of the department to have intimate knowledge of our private healthcare.
Specifically, we are concerned about:
1. Requiring people who have already had a 201G-VR filled out by a medical provider to have another one filled out less than four months later. Act 113 says that if we are not in receipt of SSDI, that we need:
(B) A form developed by the department to document a qualifying disability or health condition that requires:
(i) the applicant’s name, date of birth, and the last four digits of the applicant’s Social Security number or other identifying number;
(ii) a description of the applicant’s disability or health condition;
(iii) a description of the risk posed to the applicant’s health, safety, or welfare if
temporary emergency housing is not authorized pursuant to this section; and
(iv) a certification of a health care provider, as defined in 18 V.S.A. § 9481, that includes the provider’s credentials, credential number, address, and phone number;”
We have already fulfilled this eligibility requirement with the 201G-VR that was filled out previously. The department cannot require from us or anyone who comes after us more than this to prove our eligibility.
- The new process for the 218M Shelter Exemption Form: Some of us already have a 218M on file. It’s our understanding that when a shelter space becomes available, our vouchers will be ended without notice and we will be expected to move, without the time to prepare or figure out with our regular support system if the shelter can accommodate our disabilities. Many shelters do not have accessibility or such. This means that we will lose our hotel room, our family will be displaced suddenly and potentially end up outside if the shelter cannot accommodate our needs. Previously our regular providers or case managers could fill out a 218M. Now we’re told only the relevant shelter provider can do so. This means that people with no knowledge of us, no knowledge of our history, trauma or anything else, are in control of whether we can succeed in that placement. They don’t have more relevant information about us than the daily providers we work with.
- Reasonable Accommodations: On the flier that economic services had put under our doors, it states that going forward, for us to receive a reasonable accommodation, we need a note from a medical provider outlining the accommodations we need. That creates a massive hurdle for us. Most of us have service providers or other supports around us that would be able to verify this need. Also, it takes a lot of courage for us on our own to attest to needing a reasonable accommodation. Our dignity and our voice should be respected when we inform you of the need. Those of us who have signed this letter and many others already have a documented disability. We should have the dignity of being able to inform you of our needs when it comes to a reasonable accommodation. And for those who do not yet have this documentation, we ask that you also allow them to attest to this need. Furthermore, medical providers do not know the entire benefits process and therefore cannot outline each needed accommodation. Likewise, some of us with disabilities cannot communicate this in detail to medical providers due to our disability.
- We also want to note that the process for anyone experiencing homelessness to find permanent housing is near impossible. People living with disabilities face many more barriers than others do. To make us take any time away from overcoming those hurdles to find permanent housing to jump through hurdles designed only for people living with disabilities adds to the barriers we face finding permanent housing.
Too often people with disabilities are treated with a profound lack of dignity and support. One person likened the process of qualifying for disability as a “hazing process.” We agree -- it feels like we are being “hazed.”
As the commissioner of the Department of Children and Families, please put our well-being and dignity first and work to support us through this challenging time. You are in a role to serve those most in need and we are being harmed repeatedly because we are living with disabilities.
