Wed, 8/25 9:18AM • 30:21

Episode 16 - How Independent Living Centers Help People find Accessible and Affordable Housing with April Marie Dawson

SPEAKERS: April Dawson, Stephen Beard

Stephen Beard 00:01

Welcome to accessible housing matters. I'm your host, Stephen Beard. I'm a real estate agent and an accessibility specialist. I got into real estate to being the agent for people with disabilities and their families. Through my work, I've met 1000s of people. And now I want to share what I've learned. Each week, my guests and I will talk about accessibility and housing. Over time, I'll explore many different aspects of the subject from a wide range of perspectives. Together, we'll learn about some pretty cool stuff, and inspire you to new ideas, discussions and actions, that will really make a difference. Because accessible housing matters. Hello, everyone. Today I'm here with April Dawson. April is the executive director of resources for Independent Living, which is a an independent living center in Sacramento, California. Welcome to the show, April.

April Dawson 01:05

Hi, Steven, thanks for having me.

Stephen Beard 01:08

I invited you here today. So we can talk about the role that independent living centers play in accessible housing. It's a very big role. It's a very important role. And I want to start exploring it with somebody who knows something about this, which is, you know, I'm looking forward to our dialogue. So I guess I'd like to start by maybe we could just overview what the whole what these independent living centers are all about. I know there's one, and there's several in my area where I live, and you have yours in Sacramento, I understand they're all over the country actually, tell me a little bit about what they are, what, how they what they're about, and then we can dig into their role in housing.

April Dawson 01:49

Absolutely. So resources for Independent Living is one of 29 Centers for Independent Living across the state of California, and our catchment area is Sacramento and Yolo counties. And basically, independent living centers are run foreign by people with disabilities. So by law, at least 51% of our staff and board have to be people with disabilities. And so the whole idea behind Centers for Independent Living is that people with disabilities know best about how to run our lives. And so what we do is we provide Independent Living services, supports and advocacy at the peer level. And so if someone comes to our center, they're working with someone who has maybe walked a similar path in life maybe has the same disability, as the person that they're matched with. And we work with the person. And how what sets us apart from other service delivery organizations is we actually take a approach where we ask the person, what they want to do with their life, what do they imagine for their life? And what are the supports that they need to get there to stay independent in the community where they want to be. And so that's really our mission and what drives us.

Stephen Beard 03:06

And are the people you serve primarily people with physical disabilities? Or does it include other types of disabilities that are not physical as well,

April Dawson 03:17

we're across disability organization, which is a fancy way of saying we serve people of all ages of all types of disabilities. So not just physical. Definitely, in the early days of the independent living movement, a lot of the more visible people that got the most visibility were people with physical disabilities, but there have been people with all types of disabilities who have been involved from the very beginning in our movement.

Stephen Beard 03:41

And how, how many people does your center there in Sacramento serve?

April Dawson 03:49

We serve over 500 people a year.

Stephen Beard 03:51

Awesome. So tell me a little bit about the role of the independent living center in housing? Absolutely. So one of our core services is called housing search assistance, which doesn't tell you very much about what we do. So I can tell you a little bit. We do so much more than that. And so, resources for independent living for our role, what we do is we maintain a housing list of affordable and accessible housing in our catchment area. And when people access our services, let's say they're moving, moving from an institution and want their own apartment for the first time or or they're coming back from an injury, or they're moving out of their family's home for the first time as a transition age us. You know, we see people from all different sectors or maybe they're homeless and getting back into being housed. What we do is we help match them with a housing type that will work for them. And we also take a team approach where let's say that person needs caregivers to be able to live independently, or they need access to accessible transportation to live independently. So we help them kind of identify, you know, what are the things that you need to live independently. And here's a couple of options. What we also do is that goes with that is we do a lot of homeless and institutional diversion. So let's say someone you know, we work a lot with, with seniors, for example, who wants to continue to age in place in their homes, but they find that as their disabilities progress due to aging, they might need a modification, like such as a grab bar or shower chair, things like that. So what we do is we can assist them through a special funds that we have, where we can purchase those items and help them prevent them from going into a higher level of care. So we do diversion to prevent people from going into a higher level of care. We also do a generous donor, we're able to pay for people who are at risk of homelessness, we pay for one month's rent, as well as utilities and groceries. So we've prevented homelessness this year and over 70 older adults through that fund. That's wonderful. Yeah, we're really proud of that. So that's our diversion. And then we we do a lot of housing advocacy we do on the individual level, a lot of landlord mediation, as well as educating the community on their rights with the moratoriums and such to to COVID the eviction moratoriums. And then we also do a lot with the city and counties in our catchment area to make sure that, you know, their housing element includes people with disabilities and the housing types, they need to be independent, as well as advocating every time there are changes to the way that the city and county approaches homelessness or affordable housing that people with disabilities aren't left behind in those conversations. So tell me a little bit more about how you work with cities and planners around their housing models.

April Dawson 07:02

Absolutely. So most recently, we started working with both the city and county of Sacramento on their housing element, which is an eight year plan that gives us an opportunity to influence housing in our region for the next eight years. And so some of the things that we've done at the city level is we've worked with planners to enhance their their universal design ordinance for new construction. So there has been a universal design ordinance for new construction, which allows people with disabilities to design their new homes in a way that will help them you know, stay in their homes independently with different designs that are universally designed and allow them to have maybe you know, the kind of bathroom they need, or the kitchen, they need, things like that. But a lot of people don't utilize it, it was very underutilized. So the city asked us to assist with giving feedback about how it's worded as well as help them to advertise it. So we have a plan this fall to assist the city with advertising their their universal design ordinance. The other thing with the county that we have been doing is they're really trying to actually get a universal design ordinance on the books. And so we really pushed for that. And, you know, a lot of our suggestions, made it into the final document, that's, that's now with the now add to the public comment level. So I'm really proud of that. Also, the city has really been pushing through their master plan on homelessness, to sure that they can get the almost 6000 people that are on the streets in Sacramento County at any given time, you know, into, you know, indoors. And so we have been at the table since the very beginning. And I want to emphasize that, you know, access in order for it to work has to be included at the front end, it's much easier to include access at the front end, then to you know, go back and realize that you didn't include a group of people and have to mitigate that it's very costly and devastating to the individuals involved into the communities that lose them. And so we've been involved in their housing collaborative group for over a year now. And the city council just passed their housing master plan, actually on Tuesday of this week. And we were very involved in making sure that at the implementation stage, that all of the sites that were identified, need to be accessible as well as their motel voucher program needs to make sure that there's training for those vendors on how to be ADA compliant. Those are just a few of the things that we've done. And also with their ad use, which is the accessory dwelling units one of the one of the strategies that the city is is employing is to encourage People to rent at us in their, in their homes to people who need need housing. And so we have really been pushing from the very beginning to make sure that those homeowners have access to home modification resources so that those ad use aren't just, you know, a really tiny little thing in the in the garage that no one can get into if they have a have a physical disability, for example. Because if you're not thinking about people with disabilities, in your homeless master plans, then you're leaving almost the majority of the people that are on the streets at any one given time out of those plans, and it's not going to work.

Stephen Beard 10:43

So it's funny you bring up or actually cool that you bring up the whole issue of ad use. Because a few weeks ago, I interviewed a woman who is a with a nonprofit in the Bay Area. And they are working with homeowners to help them develop and build at use on their properties that are accessible and affordable. And so it's they're getting money from their county to help do that, which is really cool. I wanted to talk to you a little bit about what you mentioned about advocacy. Previously on my show I had on someone from the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, and they were talking about their process for tenants and homeowners who are dealing with violations of fair housing law to approach them to make complaints about whatever the problem is around fair housing, especially around disability and access issues. And you mentioned advocacy, do you help them do help individuals to prop to, to make such claims to to make such a complaints with fair housing.

April Dawson 11:47

So we're not a legal organization, but we absolutely can assist people with what their rights are, and how to wind through those, those services and those legal avenues. And so we're able to educate them on what those legal avenues are, and we are able to assist to some extent with the paperwork. But I will say that in Sacramento County, we work a lot with Project Sentinel, which and the renter's helpline, and we actually have a memorandum of understanding with them where we actually refer clients to them who want to make those types of complaints. And so we will do a lot of you know, disability, cultural competency and wraparound services with the client and then project Sentinel takes over and does the legal piece. And we also do at least for for code trainings a year at different Independent Living apartment sites, mostly for older adults that we do in conjunction with Project Sentinel. And we've also trained their staff a couple of times on disability advocacy and justice. I don't like to use the word disability out etiquette. So I always do Disability Justice trainings for for customer service and legal professionals, 

Stephen Beard 13:07

Awesome in the Bay Area. And I may, it may be true where you are to. And if maybe it's true even more broadly around the country. Sometimes it seems to me having worked in this area for so many years that there's a bit of disconnect between different elements of disability community, broadly speaking. So in California, we have a huge Advocacy Network through the developmental disabilities community, because of the Department of Developmental Services and the whole regional center system. Do you work at all with the agencies and with the regional centers at all in supporting mutual client clients with mutual interests that way? Who are getting services from them? as well as from you? Or do you ever encounter that world?

April Dawson 13:57

Absolutely. We work a lot with the State Council on Developmental Disabilities when we do statewide advocacy. And we also work with the regional centers and have quite a few clients who experience intellectual and developmental disabilities. And I'm also proud to say that a lot of people who receive services from the Regional Center also are very active self advocates, with our advocacy programs and attend our advocacy classes and often will go on educational legislative visits with us. And so it is a strong partnership that we're that we're glad that we're that we're doing because we want to make sure that we stay cross disability and not just focus on the physical disabilities, as I mentioned earlier, so.

Stephen Beard 14:43

Yeah no, I think it's so important. I'm really happy to hear that. So in the bay area where I am, there's a real problem with affordability and with people you talk about there being a homeless problem in in Sacramento, a lot of people living on the streets there too. And is that because of the The high cost of housing. And what are you able to do? I mean, for people who are on I know, in the Bay Area collecting SSI, and they don't have a section eight voucher, for example, which is a housing subsidy subsidy through HUD that they can really, really struggle to find an apartment, do you find the same thing in your area and empower you? How do you help those folks?

April Dawson 15:23

Absolutely. One of the biggest issues in the Sacramento region, and the number one reason people call us for assistance is housing. And so there is a lack of not just affordability. But what is available is there's a lack of affordable and accessible housing stock. And so when we do advocacy, a lot of organizations will focus on the affordable housing piece. And we always say it has to be affordable and accessible. So that's why we really been pushing the region that we serve and the government entities to make sure that when you are trying to increase the stock, that you make sure it's universally designed and accessible, that there's home modification, dollars rental assistance dollars available, and that you're working with us to make sure that when we're placing people in housing, the they have the tools they need to maintain that housing like caregivers access to, you know, public transportation, and we do a lot of work in the space of equitable placemaking. When we're working with planners, we get invited to almost every listening session, I've been to so many listening sessions, it's wonderful over the last three years, when talking about making sure that we prevent displacement, because there's so much I think, in California, this mindset, if we just build, build, build, it's going to fix the problem. But you're what you're doing is if you just keep building all these expensive homes, you're not going or developments, you're going to continue to push people out. And the people that are from these communities that have lived there and invested in them, you know, they're they're the, they're the resource, they're the they're the people that you should be going to first they need to be setting the table for how their community is, should look and feel. And you should be asking them what they need and what they want in their in their community.

Stephen Beard 17:18

Where is your greatest frustration right now, in terms of the whole housing, you talk about, you know, we don't need just affordable housing, we need accessible housing. And that's my mantra to, and many of the people I've interviewed on this podcast, where is your biggest challenge right now in that area,

April Dawson 17:37

I think my biggest challenge, I'll give for an example, whenever I see a new fancy development go up, like, I am very privileged, you know, I'm a, I'm a white woman who makes I think I'm a relatively privileged white woman living in Midtown Sacramento in a new really nice development, but I can't reach the top cabinets in my apartment, I don't have an ADA apartment, is because of universal design, you know, laws and ordinances and such, I'm able to have a zero entry into my apartment and a lot zero threshold. Yeah, there's a lot. There's a lot of access features that are built in. But, you know, it's like if we could just think about design for the widest amount of people that are going to need it. And there's designs out there that are that are beautiful, that don't other you that make you feel like, you know, anybody would want to live in that apartment. And so I get frustrated when access is not a thought of from the front end. Because this this complex that I'm living in will probably be around for, like 50 years. So every time I see something that's built this way, it's like, why it's like, why couldn't we have just thought about this differently from the beginning, instead of going back and trying to figure out how to mitigate it or fix it.

Stephen Beard 18:57

I appreciate your frustration. It really bothers me when I hear about developers who are able to circumvent building affordable and accessible units by paying extra money to the government authority. Instead of having to do the, instead of having to do the satisfied for a certain number of units to meet certain standards, they basically pay a penalty fee. Do you encounter that? Or do you ever see that in your world, too.

April Dawson 19:26

I have seen that. And we work a lot with different organizations that are experts on this that try to mitigate that and change that. And we try to do educational advocacy around that whenever whenever we have the opportunity to do so to increase the amount of accessible and affordable housing that's required and such. And it is frustrating. I know that I was I was speaking with a developer the other day who when I was speaking to him about universal design, he was like well, you just want me to make it Cookie Cutter make everything look the same. And, and, and you know what i what i what i wanted to say. And I said it a little bit was like, you know, you're sitting in a chair right now, nobody asks you why you get to sit in a chair, right? I use a wheelchair. So I bring my own chair to meetings, but there's like, there's these chairs. There's this fancy, you know, chandelier that I see in lobbies at these places. And it's like, nobody asks, nobody considers that an amenity or something that is special. No one says that special or thinks about how much that's going to cost. But when it comes to people with disabilities and older adults, it's like, well, we can't make that ramp, or we can't make that lower. You know, that's asking me to do something special for this group of people. And and and I think that, you know, you need to realize that people with disabilities are everyone, everyone either has a disability will have a disability or know someone who has a disability. And so when we're when we're talking about planning communities, we need to plan for the people that are going to live in those communities. And those people have disabilities.

Stephen Beard 21:02

I you know, it's it's interesting, you say that, because a few weeks ago, I had a guest on my show, who was talking about the impact of an aging society on the way we develop housing, and how not only are people with disabilities getting older and need to have housing that is accessible as their as they age, but their care providers are also aging and need to be able to provide care for them in the home, as aging people. So we've got a lot of big issues around demographic changes, I think as well, that are going to be challenging. And I think, I wonder if the developers and architects out there, let me put it this way over the past, over the years that I've been selling real estate, I've noticed that we are trending in the right direction. And yet I hear stories like the one you're talking about where there's a kind of a blind spot about the need for us to be thinking more universally, in the way we build our communities and our housing. And I don't know, if you agree with that, what do you think of that?

April Dawson 22:06

I think that's true. And I think that, you know, universal design has gained momentum in different communities. I know like Seattle, you know, and this isn't housing. But you know, I recently went to the Space Needle, how they redesign the Space Needle. And the way that they redesigned it is anyone whether they have a disability or not could access the viewing area. Whereas if you've been to the Space Needle before, there was only you can only go so far without having to use a lift that was often broken. And then I think there was like some fencing there. That was it wasn't very attractive either. But then here I am at the Space Needle able to put push my wheelchair right up to this beautiful glass viewing area and feel like I'm a part of the skyscrapers. And I didn't feel like necessarily a person with a disability, you know, I can't just erase that I have a disability, it's a part of who I am. And it's something that I'm very proud of. But when you're universally Designing Spaces, you're not thinking about in terms of you know, this special set aside for a group of people you're thinking about, you know, beautifully, you know, practically designed spaces that anyone would want to walk in and use. Do you find that political leadership is attuned to the concerns of our community? Yes, and no, I think in the Sacramento region, we have been very lucky that because of the hard work of people that have come before me, that a lot of the political leaders have been attuned to people with disabilities, like, I'm we're very lucky in the city of Sacramento, that, you know, Darrell Steinberg, our mayor, he hires people with disabilities, you know, he he appointed me to his climate to the to the not his climate change commission, but the climate change the climate change commission, last year, which you wouldn't think has a disability connection, but he was able to kind of see the bigger picture so and he's always willing to listen to us and talk to us. And in the other communities we serve in the region, we find that we are because we we make sure that we're at those tables, and we do quality work, we keep being asked back. But I do think that there are times when especially in the business community, I'd love to do more. You know, one of my goals is for Arielle to do more outreach in the business community and the developer community, to really help them understand how access isn't just a nice thing for them to do. It's actually something they need to do, but it's also something they don't have to be afraid of.

Stephen Beard 24:38

I have people who are listening to the show who are all over the country and there may be even people who are involved with independent living centers in other parts of the country. Based on your experience in Sacramento. What advice would you want to share with other advocates and other communities around how to move the needle The housing problem and the housing issues in our community?

April Dawson 25:04

Well, I think that we just need to continue to mobilize our community. You know, the Centers for Independent Living can really be a hub where we continue to mobilize our base and make sure that people are empowered and have the tools to know that their voices heard, teach them how to go to these city planning meetings and county meetings, participate in the housing element discussions and the public comment periods. Learn what those buzz words mean, and teach them how to ask for accommodations at those hearings if they need them. And that is what I really think needs to happen is that that people value the the power of their own voice. And that I'll seize otherwise known as independent living centers can be the the conduit for which we mobilize people to get to those spaces where those decisions are made. And also, I'd love to see, you know, more people with disabilities running for office be getting on commissions and boards, becoming elected officials, so that our lens is is actually in the houses of power where those decisions are made. April, what

Stephen Beard 26:11

got you interested in pursuing this type of work?

April Dawson 26:15

Well, I was born with Spina Bifida. So I am a lifelong person with a disability. And I'm a wheelchair user. And what first got me involved was, I really had my first awakening about disability rights when I was a junior in college. And I found that the Disability Resource Center on campus was very bureaucratic and unfriendly. And, you know, prior to that, I didn't, I almost pretended like I didn't have a disability, I would, you know, when I would see another person with a disability across the street, I would turn and go into the nearest business so I wouldn't have to interact with that person. I grew up with a, you know, despite having parents that were very proud of my disability and top in and raised me to be just like everyone else, but also talked openly about my disability as well, and tried to give me those tools I, I grew up with a lot of shame around my disability, and but when I got to college, I remember that a group of us, I remember getting an email saying, you know, meet me at the flagpole at this time to talk about the Disability Resource Center. And so I went and there was like three or four people there. And then we had this like really empowering conversation. And we shared stories about similar issues and, and I realized that I wasn't alone. And then I went to our first their, their first event and learned about who Ed Roberts was, and about the independent living movement. And I realized, wow, this is this is not just me, in my little shame silo, this is like a whole movement, and people have really fought and in some cases died so that I could have opportunities and use my voice. And so I, that empowered me and and so after I graduated from college, I worked in the private sector for a while, but then my, my aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer. And so that is really what drove me to get back to disability advocacy was was through what she went through winding through systems as a under resourced person.

Stephen Beard 28:30

So for our listeners that are in the Sacramento area, if they want more information about your work, and whatever they want to reach you or your agency will, how do they reach out?

April Dawson 28:41

Absolutely. So there's a couple of different ways you can go to our website, which is www.ril-sacramento.org. Or you can call us at 916-446-3074. We are operating by phone, email, or zoom right now due to the pandemic. However, we can meet people in person if there is a barrier to service through phone, email and zoom. And so we look forward to serving serving our community and doing more more great work.

Stephen Beard 29:14

Well, I will certainly make sure that's in our show notes. I want to thank you April for making the time to chat with me today. 

April Dawson 29:20

Thank you, Steven for having me. I had a good time.

Stephen Beard 29:26

I hope today's discussion was valuable for you. If you liked the show, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss an episode posted on social media, invite friends and let me know if you have any suggestions for future topics. While you're there, I'd be so grateful if you leave me a review. Your feedback will help me to improve the show. Do you have a question about the show? Email me directly at Stephen@stephenbeard.net. You can also check us out on Facebook by searching accessible housing matters, by visiting our website at accessiblehousingmatters.com and all this can be found in our show notes. Join us next week for another great conversation about why accessible housing matters. Thanks for listening!