NYAIL Newsletter, March 2024

NYAIL News 2024

Advocacy Updates, 2023 Program Data, Webinar Series and Center Spotlights

Thank you for taking the time to read the monthly newsletter from the New York Association on Independent Living (NYAIL). Do you have job postings, events, or suggestions to improve our newsletter? Send any information to NYAIL’s Communications Specialist Blaise Bryant.

Advocacy Updates

5 photo collage of budget advocacy day. From top to bottom left to right. 1st image is of registration with Two women sitting at table and a large crowd of attendees waiting to checkin. 2nd image just below the 1st and to the right, side view of a blind man at a podium with his service dog giving a speech. Centered on the graphic is a photo of 2 staff and an attendees standing at the Justice Center for the protection of People with Special needs event table. Just below this and to the right are two women in wheelchairs holding up a fair pay poster. Bottom right of is of 2 NYAIL staff smiling and sitting at the New York Association on Independent Living's event table.

We appreciate and thank everyone who attended our 2024 Budget Advocacy Day in Albany. It was great to have our community together, meet some new advocates, and catch up with many of you. Several centers were represented during the event at tables and in the audience during the opening program. It was even better to see everyone busy all day going to meetings. We had a few special guests during our program, including both Chairs of the Disabilities Committees: Assembly member Seawright and Senator Mannion. A recording is available on our Facebook page.

We need you to join us again in continuing to advocate for NYAIL’s Budget Disability Priority Agenda items. Independent Living Center funding, Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) inclusion, Access to Home funding, and several health priorities like systemic changes to New York’s long term care system supporting home care and preserving eligibility. We encourage everyone to follow up on their meetings. The next big step before final budget negotiations are the one-house budgets from the Senate and Assembly which are released around March 10. Keep advocating with your elected state representatives for inclusion of our priorities in the budget.

Following NYAIL’s Budget Advocacy Day, the Governor released her 30 day budget amendments which includes several negative proposals impacting the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance (CDPA) program. These cuts are in addition to other cuts outlined in our Budget DPA, including elimination of wage parity that helps support the downstate home care workforce. The new proposed cuts include eliminating designated representatives who help people with disabilities access CDPA and adding unnecessary requirements interfering in the relationship between aides and consumers as employers. We are advocating to preserve the role of ILCs as Fiscal Intermediaries and protect consumers rights within the program. You can learn more about these cuts in our statement, which we encourage you to share with your local legislators.

Keep an eye out for more opportunities to take action. If you have not already sign up to receive our Action Alerts! The final New York State budget is due April 1st.

NYAIL’s Executive Director Lindsay Miller testified on February 1 at a Joint Legislative Budget Hearing for Elementary and Secondary Education advocating for an IL budget of $18 million. This $2 million increase would be divided between the 41 centers gaining close to $50,000 more for their budgets. She also advocated to add IL services to human services under bill A.8437/S.7793 to provide a long overdue COLA going forward. Currently ILCs do not receive a COLA because of our placement in the State Education Budget.

2023 Program Data

In 2023 ...

NYAIL’s Open Doors Program helped transition 821 individuals from nursing homes back to the community.
The Good Neighbor Program helped 67 people who did not have the family or friends needed to leave the nursing home and return back to the community.
Our Olmstead Housing Subsidy program helped 116 total participants transition from nursing facilities back to the community living in units of their choice, receiving ongoing rent and tenancy assistance.
NYAIL’s Rapid Transition Housing subsidy program transitioned 84 participants from nursing homes or homeless shelters into units of their choice. The program provides ongoing rental and tenancy assistance.

This work would not have been possible without the collective efforts of the program staff at our ILCs. Learn more at our programs page!

Webinar Series

We took an unplanned break last month due to scheduling conflicts. The webinar series is back this month on Wednesday, March 13. Jenna McClosky with the NY Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Program will give us an overview of the ABLE Program and how it works. Learn more and register via our Training and Education page!

Center Spotlight

Support Access to Home. New York State’s existing home modification program, Access to Home, has been severely underfunded for several years. This has left many parts of the state unserved. We know that accessible home modifications help people stay in their homes and prevent unwanted and unnecessary institutionalization.

ARISE in Syracuse is now doing a series of blogs focused on our various advocacy priorities. The first article focuses on the Access to Home Program and the critical need for funding this statewide program at $10 million.

Taconic Resources for Independence (TRI) is hosting a “Know Your Rights” series for parents and children with disabilities in special education settings. The series is happening on Tuesdays through April 9. Click here to learn more and register!