More Accessible Housing in Memphis?

More than 5% Accessible Housing Units.  Information Bulletin #396 (12/2014)

By Steve Gold

Under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, recipients of "federal financial assistance" were prohibited from discriminating.  It took nearly 15 years for HUD to finally promulgate what nondiscrimination meant in the housing arena.  Then in 1988, HUD's federal regulations set a floor - 5% of federally funded housing had to be mobility accessible for people with mobility disabilities (and another 1% for hearing and visual disabilities).

For a number of years, the disability community could not enforce the 5% minimum, even though we believed it was grossly too low and inadequate.  Even with the 1990 and 2000 census, we did not have a handle to push higher than 5%.

Now, with the 2010 census we can.  The primary federal financial assistance housing programs that the 2010 census impacts are the HOME Investment Partnership, Project Based Housing Vouchers, and Public Housing.

HUD's federal regulation 24 CFR ? 8.22 (c ) states that HUD "may prescribe a high percentage ... upon request ... based upon demonstration ... based on census data...."

Disability Advocates - here's a suggested battle plan.  First, you must use the Census's "American Fact Finder" and determine for your county the percentage of persons "with an ambulatory difficulty" whose incomes are under the poverty levels. It is critical to remember that this data does NOT include persons institutionalized in nursing homes. Second, you must contact your local HUD FHEO office and request at the least that prospectively HUD enforce the increased percentages.

To wet your interest, here are some preliminary results:  Philadelphia, PA, 13.2%; Washington county, PA.15.3%, Chicago, Ill, 9.4%;  Baltimore, 13.8%; Orleans Parish, New Orleans, 10.65%;  El Paso, TX 9.8%;  Lafayette Parish in Louisiana, 9.46%.

No more excuses!  The data is now available.  It's up to you, the advocates, to make it happen.

Steve Gold, The Disability Odyssey continues

Back issues of other Information Bulletins posted after 10/2013 can be found only at http://stevegoldada.blogspot.com/ Information Bulletins before 10/2013 are available online at http://www.stevegoldada.com with a searchable Archive at this site divided into different subjects.

Congress Passes ABLE Act

How it Effects Persons with Disabilities and Their Families

(Washington, D.C. – Dec. 17, 2014) – Last night, the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passed the Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act of 2014 by a vote of 76 to 16. First introduced in 2006, and subsequent sessions of Congress, the ABLE Act will allow people with disabilities (with an age of onset up to 26 years old) and their families the opportunity to create a tax-exempt savings account that can be used for maintaining health, independence and quality of life.

“Today marks a new day in our country’s understanding and support of people with disabilities and their families,” Michael Morris, National Disability Institute (NDI) Executive Director, said. “A major victory for the disability community, ABLE, for the very first time in our country’s policy on disability, recognizes that there are added costs to living with a disability.” He continued. “For far too long, federally imposed asset limits to remain eligible for critical public benefits have served as a roadblock toward greater financial independence for the millions of individuals living with a disability.”

NDI has long championed the ABLE Act as a critical strategy to providing a pathway to a better economic future for all people with disabilities. As the nation’s first nonprofit dedicated to improving the financial health and future of all people with disabilities, the organization has extensively documented and called attention to the daily reality and extra expenses associated with living with a disability, and the challenges of navigating the complex web of government rules to maintain public benefits eligibility.

In recognition of this unprecedented legislation, NDI has created a list of 10 items about ABLE accounts that individuals with disabilities and their families should know:

1.     What is an ABLE account?

ABLE Accounts, which are tax-advantaged savings accounts for individuals with disabilities and their families, will be created as a result of the passage of the ABLE Act of 2014. Income earned by the accounts would not be taxed. Contributions to the account made by any person (the account beneficiary, family and friends) would not be tax deductible.  

2.     Why the need for ABLE accounts?

Millions of individuals with disabilities and their families depend on a wide variety of public benefits for income, health care and food and housing assistance. Eligibility for these public benefits (SSI, SNAP, Medicaid) require meeting a means or resource test that limits eligibility to individuals to report more than $2,000 in cash savings, retirement funds and other items of significant value. To remain eligible for these public benefits, an individual must remain poor. For the first time in public policy, the ABLE Act recognizes the extra and significant costs of living with a disability. These include costs, related to raising a child with significant disabilities or a working age adult with disabilities, for accessible housing and transportation, personal assistance services, assistive technology and health care not covered by insurance, Medicaid or Medicare. 

For the first time, eligible individuals and families will be allowed to establish ABLE savings accounts that will not affect their eligibility for SSI, Medicaid and other public benefits. The legislation explains further that an ABLE account will, with private savings, “secure funding for disability-related expenses on behalf of designated beneficiaries with disabilities that will supplement, but not supplant, benefits provided through private insurance, Medicaid, SSI, the beneficiary’s employment and other sources.”  

3.     Am I eligible for an ABLE account?

Passage of legislation is a result of a series of compromises. The final version of the ABLE Act limits eligibility to individuals with significant disabilities with an age of onset of disability before turning 26 years of age. If you meet this criteria and are also receiving benefits already under SSI and/or SSDI, you are automatically eligible to establish an ABLE account. If you are not a recipient of SSI and/or SSDI, but still meet the age of onset disability requirement, you would still be eligible to open an ABLE account if you meet SSI criteria regarding significant functional limitations. The regulations to be written in 2015 by the Treasury Department will have to explain further the standard of proof and required medical documentation. You need not be under the age of 26 to be eligible for an ABLE account. You could be over the age of 26, but must have the documentation of disability that indicates age of onset before the age of 26.

4.     Are there limits to how much money can be put in an ABLE account?

The total annual contributions by all participating individuals, including family and friends, is $14,000. The amount will be adjusted annually for inflation. Under current tax law, $14,000 is the maximum amount that individuals can make as a gift to someone else and not pay taxes (gift tax exclusion). The total limit over time that could be made to an ABLE account will be subject to the individual state and their limit for education-related 529 savings accounts. Many states have set this limit at more than $300,000 per plan. However, for individuals with disabilities who are recipients of SSI and Medicaid, the ABLE Act sets some further limitations. The first $100,000 in ABLE accounts would be exempted from the SSI $2,000 individual resource limit. If and when an ABLE account exceeds $100,000, the beneficiary would be suspended from eligibility for SSI benefits and no longer receive that monthly income. However, the beneficiary would continue to be eligible for Medicaid. States would be able to recoup some expenses through Medicaid upon the death of the beneficiary.

5.     Which expenses are allowed by ABLE accounts?

A “qualified disability expense” means any expense related to the designated beneficiary as a result of living a life with disabilities. These include education, housing, transportation, employment training and support, assistive technology, personal support services, health care expenses, financial management and administrative services and other expenses which will be further described in regulations to be developed in 2015 by the Treasury Department.

6.     Where do I go to open an ABLE account?

Each state is responsible for establishing and operating an ABLE program. If a state should choose not to establish its own program, the state may choose to contract with another state to still offer its eligible individuals with significant disabilities the opportunity to open an ABLE account.

After President Obama signs the ABLE Act, the Secretary of the Department of Treasury will begin to develop regulations that will guide the states in terms of a) the information required to be presented to open an ABLE account; b) the documentation needed to meet the requirements of ABLE account eligibility for a person with a disability; and c) the definition details of “qualified disability expenses” and the documentation that will be needed for tax reporting.

No accounts can be established until the regulations are finalized following a public comment period on proposed rules for program implementation. States will begin to accept applications to establish ABLE accounts before the end of 2015.  

7.     Can I have more than one ABLE account?

No. The ABLE Act limits the opportunity to one ABLE account per eligible individual.

8.     Will states offer options to invest the savings contributed to an ABLE account?

Like state 529 college savings plans, states are likely to offer qualified individuals and families multiple options to establish ABLE accounts with varied investment strategies. Each individual and family will need to project possible future needs and costs over time, and to assess their risk tolerance for possible future investment strategies to grow their savings. Account contributors or designated beneficiaries are limited, by the ABLE Act, to change the way their money is invested in the account up to two times per year.

9.     How many eligible individuals and families might benefit from establishing an ABLE account?

There are 58 million individuals with disabilities in the United States. To meet the definition of significant disability required by the legislation to be eligible to establish an ABLE account, the conservative number would be approximately 10 percent of the larger group, or 5.8 million individuals and families. Further analysis is needed to understand more fully the size of this market and more about their needs for new savings and investment products.

10.   How is an ABLE account different than a special needs or pooled trust?

An ABLE Account will provide more choice and control for the beneficiary and family. Cost of establishing an account will be considerably less than either a Special Needs Trust (SNT) or Pooled Income Trust. With an ABLE account, account owners will have the ability to control their funds and, if circumstances change, still have other options available to them.  Determining which option is the most appropriate will depend upon individual circumstances. For many families, the ABLE account will be a significant and viable option in addition to, rather than instead of, a Trust program.

Tennessee Governor to Expand Medicaid

Gov. Haslam introduces "Insure Tennessee"

Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam has just announced a new pilot Medicaid Expansion plan to “close the gap.” Tennessee had not expanded Medicaid with the creation of the Affordable Care Act and has been ignoring millions of dollars of federal money to close the gap from traditional Medicaid and the new health care subsidies.

Today the governor announced a two-year plan called Insure Tennessee that will cover tens of thousands of citizens that currently do not have health insurance.

The governor called the plan an alternative approach and is a “unique Tennessee solution.”

The Tennessean reported that the major principles of the governors plan were: A fiscally sound and sustainable program; Providing two new private market choices for Tennesseans; Shifting the delivery model and payment of health care in Tennessee from fee-for-service to outcome-based; Incentivizing Tennesseans to be more engaged and to take more personal responsibility in their health and preparing participants for eventual transition to commercial health coverage.

The pilot program will provide Tennesseans 21 to 64 years old a choice of the Healthy Incentives Plan or the Volunteer Plan. The Volunteer Plan is to provide a health insurance voucher to participants that would be used to participate in their employer's health insurance plan. The voucher, valued at slightly less than the average TennCare per-enrollee cost, can be used to pay for premiums and other out-of-pocket expenses associated with participation in an individual's employer sponsored private market plan. People who choose the Healthy Incentives Plan may receive coverage through the TennCare program.

Under the federal Affordable Care Act, states can expand the income and eligibility requirements on their Medicaid programs to help cover individuals in the gap between Medicaid and health care plans. The federal government pays the initial cost and will share the cost with states in about 2020, with the states only paying ten percent.

The criteria are set by federal poverty guidelines, allowing people who earn up to 138 percent of federal poverty guidelines to qualify. That's $16,104 for a single person and $32,913 for a family of four.

Inaccessible Business in Memphis

Memphis ADAPT reminds The Wharton Firm that “Access Is a Civil Right.”

Memphis ADAPT a grassroots, direct action, disability rights organization marched down Madison Ave. today at 11:30 am to The Wharton Law Firm, 1575 Madison, to remind them of their obligation to include people with disabilities. The Wharton Law office has a single public entrance that is up three steps.

“We are tired of being treated as second-class citizens,” said Deborah Cunningham, the Executive Director of the Memphis Center for Independent Living. “After twenty-four years, it just doesn't make sense that attorneys are unaware of the law or cannot afford equal access.”

The Memphis Center for Independent Living filed a federal complaint on the twenty-fourth anniversary of the ADA. Memphis ADAPT delivered the message to the Wharton office that the community of people with disabilities expects the firm to respect the civil rights of people with disabilities.

"An agent of the firm appeared at the door," said one ADAPT member who at the protest; "but they seemed unconcerned with our communities civil rights and ignorant of the firms accessibility responsibilities."

The Memphis ADAPT members returned to the Memphis Center for Independent Living and had lunch together. The march and protest had accomplished its goal of delivering the message to The Wharton Firm that people with disabilities expect equal access.