Miss-Delectable

http://www.newsleader.com/apps/pbcs....511230328/1002

Advocates for the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind in Staunton are hoping an idea to bring affordable housing to deaf Virginia seniors could help save their school as the push to consolidate the two state campuses rages on.

The idea comes from Ben Jackson, a Georgia developer and president of Deaf Senior Housing, whose company has successfully established public-private partnerships to build deaf housing in Georgia, Florida and South Carolina. All of the developments are located near state schools for the deaf — a purposeful move designed to give residents access to an established deaf community and to facilitate mentoring and volunteer programs between deaf residents and local school children.

Jackson recently presented his model at a housing conference in Richmond. Rachel Bavister, president of the Virginia Association for the Deaf, said that she is attempting to contact Gov.-elect Tim Kaine and local legislators to bolster support for the housing development and VSDB-Staunton.

Kaine has not yet taken a position about where a consolidated VSDB might be located. The next General Assembly will have to decide how to proceed after estimates for a proposed consolidated campus at one of four sites — including Staunton and Hampton — all came in more than $20 million over the $61.5 million budget that state legislators set for that project.

"What the governor-elect would like to do is review those proposals and work with the legislature to find a bipartisan solution that will continue to provide high-quality service to this community of students," said Kaine's communications director, Delacey Skinner.

Bavister, a former VSDB-Staunton teacher and principal, said Jackson's housing proposal and its implications for the Staunton campus could be a huge boon for the local deaf community.

The proposal is still in its early stages. Jackson has filed an initial request for funding with the Virginia Housing Development Authority, but he has not yet spoken with city officials in Staunton. He's seeking business partners in Virginia, and he's surveying deaf Virginians to help determine statewide interest in the project. He plans to tour potential sites for the development in December with representatives from the VHDA, the VAD and the Virginia Department for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

Regardless of VSDB-Staunton's future, Jackson said he would pursue developing a housing complex for deaf residents in Staunton.

"Staunton is the center of deaf culture for Virginia and will always be where the older deaf who attended the school will look upon fondly," he wrote in an e-mail. "It is where many would want to live if there were a community designed with specific adaptive equipment ..."

The proposed complex would include between 40-60 units and be designed for mixed use — open to families, seniors and low-income residents, Jackson said. However, the community initially would be marketed to VSDB alumni.

"There is a genuine need for such housing since our deaf citizens get older, too, and sadly have no access to good communication in places that assist the elderly," former VSDB teacher Fred Yates, 79, wrote in an e-mail. "Some of the elderly deaf have gone to their reward in local places where they were mostly devoid of communication."

Avra Priola, outreach coordinator for the deaf and hard of hearing at the DisAbility Resource Center in Fredericksburg, said 50 percent of the deaf Virginians she's contacted so far for a survey on housing accessibility have had some difficulty with finding and obtaining housing. Priola is a member of the Virginia Housing Development Authority's committee on people with disabilities, and she organized the presentations on housing accessibility for the deaf at the Richmond conference earlier this month.

"We're just laying the seed right now, and we want to see these seeds grow, because there's so much lack of awareness for deaf and hard-of-hearing people," she said.

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Nesmuth

The answer is simple as Section 811 housing grants from the HUD. We've applied for one.

Richard

cabaca

How do you apply for that? The deaf community here in my local area (NM) have alot of deaf seniors and others those cannot drive, and we are trying to develop housing complex near the deaf culture center. So they, the deaf seniors, deaf and blind, and deaf persons with other disabilities, i.e., unable to drive, can walk to the center for deaf events.

deafdyke

i think a good idear would be to have the physical heardquarters of things like the dhh comission and other services at the schools for the deaf....

deafdyke

Like the thing is.....having things like the NAD office or the social service office for the dhh on the campus of a school, would facillate services and things.....Like a lot of mainstreamed dhh kids aren't aware of the things available to them.....like camps etc. Might increase parcipatation or even enrollment at the schools for the deaf (and one good thing about the justice's interpretation of the law only allowing appropreate ed instead of best education, is that a lot of parents are just SO damn frustrated that they then decide to put their kids in the specialized schools)

Y

Because of the baby boom age,
deaf senior housing/community
will be a very big major concern
in the near future.

Wonder if it is worth to be
a member of NAD again or not ?
Would NAD help with deaf senior
housing and provide all kinds
of attorneys etc ?

I recently contacted NAD office
with a simple request for an attorney to
help me with a new contract, but
I never get any effective response
from them... I begin to question
whether it's worth or not to be
a NAD member or not...

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Y

I just found out from NAD office that
their attorney would help you with
discriminations ONLY...

If you need an attorney for speeding ticket
or purchasing agreement contract or
anything else then NAD cannot help you
with this. They suggested that you go find
your own private attorney yourself.

Thats too bad. I realize it would be great
if they have various attorneys being familiar
with deaf communities with various specialities/areas
rather than just Discrimination only....

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Nesmuth

I'm back and the direct link to the HUD's Section 811 program;

Section 811 Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities

About NAD, It's sad to see them limiting the scope of their advocacy. They cant really be much of help to anyone when theyre sitting in the bottom of a $400,000 hole and wasting their resources on fighting non-deaf advocacy related fronts such as the Pinchas Case .

Richard

Nesmuth

And not to mention NAD backing fuzzy businessmen like James Kittel's works as that's a fact on the Deaf Professor's page. We all know he's got a history of deafs suing him and complaining of being burned by him through his many business gimmicks like Deaf Caution, Lazoona, Deaf Fiesta, and many others. Recently 2 deafs had to go to court to object to his Chapter 7 filing. He is rumored to have done that to keep other people's especially the deaf creditor's hands off his UPS settlement booty.

NAD's reputation goes all the way to supporting businesses and if they choose to stand behind characters like Kittell, they fall down with him.

Richard

Y

Yeah... Too many major improvements
are needed for these HUD housing programs
and these deaf organizations...

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