Disabled Utahns join protest of HUD

A contingent of Utahns with disabilities are among 500 disabled Americans who have set up the first-ever tent city at a major government agency to protest federal underfunding of affordable housing.

DUH City, which has sprung up outside the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development office building in Washington, D.C., is intended to bring public attention to what the residents claim is continuing neglect by the agency.

In particular, said Barb Toomer, a DUH City and Salt Lake resident who has led protest gatherings such as overnight occupation of the Capitol and picket lines at care centers in the area, said the group is taking direct action against HUD to force action on the "single largest barrier to freeing our people — affordable, accessible, integrated housing."

Rent for a modest studio or one bedroom apartment in housing markets across the country is more than the total monthly Supplemental Security Income check, Toomer said. "You can't pay the rent, so where do you go? Out on the street or into a nursing home. DUH!"

Spelling HUD backward as a name for the temporary town is a reminder to candidates this election year not to forget that the disabled are voters, too, and should be high on campaign debate agendas, said members of ADAPT, the nation's largest grass-roots association of people with disabilities and organizer of the protest.

Speaking for ADAPT Utah, Toomer said the 2008 primary election campaigns have included rhetoric about tax breaks for middle income families, and media coverage has included stories about families who have children with disabilities.

"Left out of all the election rhetoric are the candidates' positions on and commitments to those babies with disabilities who grow into adults with disabilities who all-too-often survive on extremely low incomes — less than 30 percent of the median income," Toomer said.

In 2006, the federal SSI benefit was $603 per month and the average cost nationally of renting a studio/efficiency apartment was $633 per month, according to figures supplied by ADAPT.

Protesters, who say they plan to stay at the encampment through Thursday, also hope to raise lawmaker awareness of proposed legislation — the Community Choice Act — that would allow older and disabled people to live in their own homes instead of being forced by circumstances to live in nursing homes and care centers.