ADRC Breakfast Celebrates Advocacy!

Left to right: State Representative Steven Xiarhos, State Representative Kip Diggs, State Sentaor Susan Moran, State Representative Chris Flanagan, CORD CEO Coreen Brinckerhoff, moderator Bob Seay, State Representative David Vieira, State Representative Dylan Fernandes, ESCCI CEO Maryanne Ryan, State Senator Julian Cyr. Shown below: State Representative Sarah Peake and ESCCI Board President Sharon Tennstedt..

The Cape & Islands statehouse delegation was present in its entirety along with almost 100 constituents and advocates at the Aging and Disabilities Resource Consortium’s Legislative Breakfast held February 9 at the Hilton Doubletree in Hyannis. Issues discussed ranged from volunteer roles in our public schools to emergency preparedness but most of the conversation centered around issues of accessibility, mobility, caregiving and housing.

Regina Broz, a navigator with Outer Cape Health Care, asked why the contract with Cape Cod RTA for PT1 medical transportation, a benefit available to MassHealth subscribers, was not renewed and instead given to the Plymouth RTA a couple years ago. She explained that local drivers were more knowledgeable about the small, sometimes unpaved, roads on the Outer Cape and better at anticipating local needs and conditions. Throughout the event, the Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority received much praise for its efforts to ensure that those without private transportation can get where they need to go.

Sadly, not everywhere we need or want to go is accessible to all. Patty Ericson-Taylor spoke eloquently about how inaccessible some of her favorite haunts have become now that she uses a walker. That’s why CORD, Inc. is advocating on behalf of S.1553/H.2291 “An Act Building a More Accessible Massachusetts,” which if enacted would align MA Architectural Access Board regulations with the ADA federal standards for accessible design and would address access problems in the blueprint phase of project design instead of in a courtroom after development has been completed.

State Representative Sarah Peake voiced her support for S.67/H.216 An Act Allowing Spouses to Serve as Caregivers. This bill would allow MassHealth to compensate spouses willing and able to serve as paid caregivers for their partners. Current rules which allow all other family members and friends except spouses to serve in this capacity, Peake said, have driven at least two couples she knows of to divorce. Although versions of this bill have floundered during previous legislative sessions, Peake said passage this year was one of her highest priorities.

For many of us on Cape Cod, our spouses may be the only caregivers available because of the acute shortage of professional care workers. ESCCI Board President Sharon Tennstedt asked the elected officials what they were doing to address this problem, which has resulted in long wait lists for ESCCI clients seeking homemaking and personal care assistance. Senator Julian Cyr was skeptical about whether raising the state reimbursement rates for these services would make a difference. “Raising wages for home care workers to $20 or even $22 per hour won’t help these workers secure affordable housing in our towns.”

As a member of the Joint Committee on Housing, Cyr has been working closely with colleagues to fine-tune Governor Healey’s Affordable Homes Act, passage of which is a priority for many elected officials from our area. Cyr, along with State Representative Dylan Fernandes, explained how two provisions of that Act in particular will impact older adults. First, the “Seasonal Communities Designation” will allow more housing to be developed for the “missing middle,” those households with incomes too high to qualify for current affordable housing but not high enough to touch properties at “market rate.” As Fernandes explained, those with incomes “in the middle” include a lot of retired folks seeking to downsize or move into homes that could be more easily maintained. Cyr relayed how standardizing regulations for Accessory Dwelling Units across the state and permitting their development in all communities, a key provision of the Affordable Homes Act which has already been put into practice in California, drove down the cost of building such units and accelerated their adoption in that state.

Attendees and others were invited to learn more about pending legislation at maslegislature.gov, where individuals can register for a MyLegislature account to make it easier to track legislation of interest and write letters to elected officials.