Funds released to help poor with winter bills

In an effort to help low income, disabled and elderly people to pay utility bills during the winter season, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that more than $2.6 billion will be released to states, tribes and territories under the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).

Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of HHS, announced the release of the funds. California will receive $50,040,993. The state of New York will receive the largest amount, totaling $359,452,627.

"By releasing this money now, we are helping to provide needed assistance to millions of Americans who otherwise might not be able to afford heat this winter," Sebelius said. "This program helps to offset seasonal energy costs for low income families, leaving more of their income to use for other necessities.”

LIHEAP helps eligible families pay the costs of heating and insulating their homes in the winter, and cooling their homes in the summer. HHS is releasing a large allocation of LIHEAP funds now in order to ensure that states have resources available to support their energy assistance programs as the weather turns colder, Sebelius said.

"Each year LIHEAP helps more than five million low income households deal with energy costs," said Carmen Nazario, assistant secretary for children and families. "We will continue to work with states, tribes and territories to assure their heating assistance programs work effectively."

Individuals interested in applying for energy assistance should contact their local, or state LIHEAP agency. Rosa Chapman is the director of Region IX, based in San Francisco. Region IX encompasses California, Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa.

If interested in this program, resident of Region IX can call (202) 260-6424

Social Security improves on case hearings

Despite the current economic downturn, and for the first time in several years, the Social Security Administration has reduced its number of pending disability appeal hearings, which allowed nearly 38,000 additional applicants to receive benefits.

Michael J. Astrue, commissioner of Social Security, said that during last fiscal year the backlog of hearings amounted to 760,813 cases. In 2008-2009, the pending claims were 722,822, an improvement of 37,991 cases. The average processing time for the cases improved to 491 days from 514 days.

“Our backlog reduction plan is working, and progress is accelerating,” Astrue said. “Even in the face of a significant increase in our workloads as a result of the worst recession since the Great Depression, we have reduced the hearings backlog for nine consecutive months.”

Astrue said the additional funding received from President Obama and Congress, earmarked in the stimulus package approved in February, was paramount to reduce backlogs of pending hearings.

The agency hired 147 new administrative law judges, who handle lots of appeal hearings. Social Security added 850 new staff members to support the judges’ work, and plans to hire 226 additional judges next fiscal year. The agency also opened three national hearing centers in Albuquerque, N.M, Baltimore, Md, and Chicago, Ill.

These centers process backlogged cases, and help in the handling of current and scheduled hearings. The agency also plans to open four satellite offices next year. One will be located in Anchorage, Ala. This office will begin to operate within the next few months.

This year, Social Security targeted 166,838 cases that were 850 days old or older, and almost processed them all. In 2010, the agency will focus again to speed up processing on files 825 days old, or older, Astrue said.

In addition, the agency averaged 570 cases finished per available administrative law judge this year. It amounts to 2.28 cases each judge disposed every day.

Obama announces changes in employment for disabled

President Obama announced that his administration is taking several steps to ensure there is fair and equal access to employment, particularly for the 54 million people in this country living with disabilities.

The announcement, issued on Oct. 5, came during National Disability Employment Awareness month.

"My administration is committed to ensuring that all Americans have the chance to fulfill their potential and contribute to our nation," President Obama said. "Across this country, millions of people with disabilities are working or want to work, and they should have access to the support and services they need to succeed.”

The president said the federal government, as the nation’s largest employer, and its contractors, can lead the way by implementing effective employment policies and practices that increase opportunities and help workers achieve their full potential.

“We must also rededicate ourselves to fostering an inclusive work culture that welcomes the skills and talents of all qualified employees. That’s why I’ve asked the responsible agencies to develop new plans and policies to help increase employment across America for people with disabilities.”

The following are some of the steps the Obama administration will take:

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) will collaborate to sponsor and organize a day long federal government-wide job fair for people with disabilities. The fair will take place in early spring 2010.

In addition to the job fair, the OPM, the ODEP, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and the Department of Defense's Office on Computer and Electronic Accommodations Program (CAP), will provide workshops throughout the day on a variety of topics including the schedule A hiring waiver and the right to the provision of reasonable accommodations including information on assistive and communications technology.

OPM will develop training on schedule A for federal human resources specialists, hiring managers and selective placement coordinators that will be easily accessible. It will include on line training.

EEOC and the Department of Justice's Civil Rights division will hold four town hall meetings throughout the nation to share information about the ADA Amendments Act proposed regulations and to gather comments on them. All town hall meetings will consist of two sessions: one for disability advocates and one for the employer community. These sessions will be completed by Nov. 20. The four locations are Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, and New Orleans.

The Department of Justice will release a video that will identify and respond to a number of common myths held by employers about workers with disabilities.
OPM will create and lead a task force comprised of representatives from key federal departments and agencies that have developed and implemented model practices for recruiting, retaining and advancing employees with disabilities.

The task force will report on the innovative practices agencies use to encourage the employment of individuals with disabilities.

The report will identify and promote successful practices for conducting outreach, recruiting, hiring qualified candidates, successful accommodations, and providing opportunities for career advancement at all levels.

Scholarships program for disabled students launched

The organization American Association on Health and Disability (AAHD) is offering several scholarships worth about $1,000 each for high school graduates and graduate-bound students to attend four-year universities and graduates schools across the nation.

All applicants must be high school graduates, or bachelor's degree recipients, have documented disability and provide documentation of their disabilities.

Applicants must be U.S. citizens or legal residents living in this country. They need to be enrolled in, or accepted by, an accredited US four year university or graduate school on a full-time basis.

Preference will be given to students majoring in public health, disability studies, health promotion or a field related to disability and health, and all the topics that can be included in disability policy and disability research.

The mission of the American Association on Health and Disability (AAHD) is to contribute to national, state, and local efforts to promote health and wellness in people with disabilities and identify effective intervention strategies that reduce health disparities between people with disabilities and the general population. AAHD accomplishes its mission through research, education and advocacy at the national, state and community level.

In 2008, AAHD launched the "Disability and Health Journal" (DHJ), the first peer reviewed, scientific, scholarly and multidisciplinary journal that focuses on health promotion and wellness for people with disabilities. Royalties from the DHJ will fund the first year of the AAHD scholarship fund.

In 2009, AAHD created the AAHD scholarship program. As this is the first year of the scholarship program, funds are limited. Scholarships will be competitive. The AAHD board of directors scholarship committee will evaluate each of the applicants and make a decision.

The first AAHD scholarship award will be on December 2009. The scholarship committee will determine how many scholarships will be awarded each year, and the amount of each scholarship.

SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM CRITERIA

APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS:
Applicant must provide a Personal Statement (maximum 3 pages-double spaced), including brief personal history, educational/career goals, extra-curricular activities, and reasons why they should be selected to get the AAHD scholarship. This Statement must be written solely by the applicant.

Applicant must provide three letters of recommendation (one must be from a teacher or academic advisor).

Applicant must provide an official copy of high school transcript as well as college transcript (if applicable).

Applicant must agree to allow AAHD to use their name, picture and/or story in future scholarship materials.

Please mail applications to:
AAHD, Att: Scholarship Committee, 110 North Washington St., Suite 328J, Rockville, MD 20850 (301) 545-6140. To download an application, visit http://www.aahd.us. Only completed applications will be considered. They need to be postmarked by Nov. 15, 2009.

Please e-mail Roberta Carlin, AAHD executive director at rcarlin@aahd.us, or call (301) 545-6140 ext. 206 if you have any questions.

HUD offers $20 million for accessible housing, independent living

Hoping to strengthen independent living and services for the disabled, elderly, and non-elderly legal residents, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), has offered $20 million in grants to owners of multi-family housing developments to support the hiring of service employees and to increase the number of units accessible for the elderly and the disabled.

HUD is making these grants available through its service coordinator program. The program will support the hiring of service coordinators to help frail and at-risk elderly individuals and persons with disabilities access health care, meals and other critical support services.

“HUD is helping to provide older Americans and those with disabilities with safe, affordable housing. These grants will help provide the services they need to allow them to remain in their homes, connected to their communities and friends, rather than face unnecessary institutionalization,’’ said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan.

The service coordinator program funding covers service coordinators salaries and fringe benefits, training, quality assurance, and relevant administrative expenses. Service coordinators assess resident needs, identify and link residents to appropriate services, and monitor the delivery of services.

Services involve activities of residents' daily living (ADLs), such as eating, dressing, bathing, grooming, transferring, and home management. A service coordinator may also educate residents about what services are available and how to use them, and help residents build informal support networks with other residents, family, and friends. The service coordinator may not require any elderly or disabled family to accept the supportive services.

These grants will be awarded to owners of privately owned multifamily housing developments that receive money from HUD to house low-income individuals. The owners or their management companies will use the funding offered today to either hire or contract service coordinators with backgrounds in providing social services, to the frail elderly and people with disabilities, and to assist their residents with special needs.

Owners of Section 202, Section 8, Section 221(d)(3) below-market interest rate, and Section 236 developments may apply for funding. Eligibility for grant funding is limited to those developments designed for the elderly and persons with disabilities, including any such building within a mixed-use project originally designed for them or where the owner gives preferences in tenant selection with HUD approval.

Type of assistance
HUD provides funding through three mechanisms at this time: (1) a national competition with other properties for a limited amount of grant funding, (2) the use of the development's residual receipts or excess income, or (3) budget-based rent increases or special rent adjustments.

HUD will award grants to approximately 100 applicants. Applications are due on or before Nov. 5, 2009.

Eligible customers
Service Coordinators can serve residents who are elderly or have a disability. "Elderly" is defined as age 62 or older. "Disabled" is defined three ways: 1) has a disability as defined in Section 223 of the Social Security Act; 2) has a physical, mental, or emotional impairment expected to be of long, continued, and indefinite duration that impedes the individual's ability to live independently, or 3) has a developmental disability.

Funding status
In Federal fiscal year 2006, HUD awarded 75 grants for a total of $12,105,849. These grants serve 78 developments, with a total of 6,038 units.

Target sued for unlawful employee treatment

A labor discrimination lawsuit filed in Los Angeles claims Target Stores. Inc., unlawfully denied reasonable accommodations to an employee with disability impairments, and substantially reduced his work hours due to his medical conditions.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed the lawsuit on Aug. 24. The EEOC establishes that Target subjected his employee at the chain’s Foothill Ranch location, in southern Orange County, to discriminatory practices on the basis of disability when it failed to notify his job coach and parents of any individual meetings involving work issues and job performance, as they requested.

The disabled worker was unable to fully communicate with others without the assistance of a job coach because of his cerebral palsy, and limited intellectual functioning.

Hence, the disabled employee was compelled to attend these in-person meetings alone, even though the job coaches and his parents have made several requests to be present in the meetings. Target hired the employee with full knowledge of his disabilities and needs for reasonable accommodations, wrote the EEOC.

The EEOC filed its lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, after it failed to reach an out of court settlement. Target's alleged conduct violates Title I of the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, and Title I of the Civil Rights Act of 1991.

Anna Y. Park, EEOC Los Angeles office district regional attorney, said the retail chain store knew well in advance it was dealing with an employee with a disability, and failed to provide assistance as required by the ADA and the 1991 Civil Rights Act.

“What is particularly disturbing here is that Target already knew this employee was disabled and needed assistance with communicating during in-person meetings,” said attorney Park. “Target’s failure to provide a reasonable accommodation denied him equal benefits and privileges of employment. Despite his disabilities, the employee in this case was qualified and motivated to work, but Target denied him an equal opportunity to succeed in the workplace.”

Target’s corporate offices are located in Minneapolis, Minn. It operates more than 1,700 stores in 49 states in the country, including more than 240 Super Target outlets. Target currently hires about 351,000 employees.

Region receives ARRA grants for local public transportation

A series of 50 grants for public transportation totaling $1.2 billion were awarded on Aug. 13 by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, as part of the nation’s stimulus economic package signed on February by President Barack Obama. The southern California region will receive $95.4 million.

These grants are part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), and aim to improve and refurbish old and worn buses, purchase paratransit units and new buses, and increase security in dozens of buses, trains, and urban train depots of cities and towns across the country.

Locally, the cities that will benefit are Lompoc, San Diego, Claremont, Commerce, and the Southern California Regional Rail Authority. In Claremont, two 25-foot long buses to transport disabled riders will be purchased with $124,728.

“The Recovery Act was put in place quickly to rescue the economy from the worst recession since the Great Depression and rebuild it for a stronger future,” said LaHood. “Rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure is a key part of that prescription for strength. It creates jobs today and builds a better, more sustainable economy moving forward.”

Since the president signed ARRA into law, grants totaling more than $4.2 billion have been made available for transit improvements throughout the nation.

“These funds are creating jobs now while investing in the future of our transit systems,” said Peter Rogoff, an administrator with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). “The public’s demand for transit service continues to grow, and these dollars will help meet that need.”

The U.S. Department of Transportation has made $48.1 billion available for highway, road, transit, bridge, and airport construction and repairs nationwide. Of that, $23.9 billion already has been slated to fund nearly 7,500 approved projects in cities, entities and most states.

In southern California, this is how the grants will be spend:

• City of Lompoc: $1.3 million to purchase one 40-foot replacement coach, two American with Disabilites Act vans, four 30-foot replacement buses, security improvement and safety equipment.

• Southern California Regional Rail Authority: $21.9 million to fund safety and capacity improvements on the Metrolink system; positive train control on the Metrolink System.

• City of Commerce: $581,682 to purchase one 35-foot low-floor bus and transit management software.

• City of Claremont: $124,748 to purchase two 25-foot paratransit buses.

• San Diego Association of Governments: $73 million to fund construction of the multi-modal transit center, rail electrification, track improvements and a bridge replacement; design and construction of the trolley wayside and trackway modifications including stations to support new low-floor vehicle operations on the Blue Line.