Disability rights activists flooded public comment in a statewide government committee meeting Wednesday, emphasizing their concern for disabled New Yorkers following a controversial memo released by the U.S. Department of Justice.
"I really want to say that when disability rights are under attack, we roll up and we fight back," activist Julie Farrar said at the end of her pubic comment.
The gathering was a quarterly meeting of the New York State Most Integrated Setting Coordinating Council, or MISCC. MISCC is responsible for ensuring people with disabilities "receive care and services in the most integrated settings appropriate to their individual needs," which aligns with the exact right the DOJ's memo last week targets.
The landmark Supreme Court case Olmstead v. L.C. in 1999 affirmed that disabled people have a right to live in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs. The case recognized unjustified segregation or institutionalization of a person for their disability could be considered discrimination under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
However, the DOJ's memo challenges this right and argues states don’t have to provide home and community based services, which have long helped reduce institutionalization.
"I have been out in the community since 2002, on my own, in my own apartment, living the kind of life that everyone with a disability dreams of living. And I don't want to lose that. I don't want to lose that," activist Angela Harmer said through tears during public comment.
Both the state’s chief disability officer and commissioner of the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities, or OPWDD say the state remains committed to community integration.
OPWDD Commissioner Willow Baer said in the meeting the memo "has really no impact on New York," because the state has already codified many protections into their own laws.
Activists, including Brian O'Malley from the Center for Disability Rights, stated they appreciated these statements but questioned why Governor Kathy Hochul has not also commented on the issue.
"We can't help but note that the governor has not provided that assurance herself, and it cannot be said that she does not weigh in on federal issues," said O'Malley, CDR's Vice President of External Affairs. "A cursory scan of press statements over the past year and a half reveal that she has issued statements on health insurance coverage, immigration, transportation, wind energy, tariffs, education, and tax policy.”
BTPM NPR has reached out to the governor’s office for comment on the DOJ memo and is awaiting a response
Some advocates also cited the governor's handling of the state's Medicaid-funded home care system, which was also the topic of separate DOJ action last week, as part of their concern with her silence.
"The idea that Governor Hochul says now she has our back regarding community-based services, I don’t see that. I don’t see that at all," Harmer said. "She took CDPAP [Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program] away from us, away from all of us the way we know it should be. So, how are we supposed to believe that she isn't going to take community-based services away from us as well?
"I am in this building constantly advocating for every moment of my life, because this government does not see me as a human being," Harmer said.
