From Hoovervile To Arnievile?

For the past six days, members of the East Bay disability community have been camped out on a street divider in Berkeley. We are trying to garner support and wake people up to the ugly things going on in Sacramento. Please think hard before saying, "Well there are two million people who are unemployed in California, times are hard for everybody." I'm saying WAIT, because there have been continued cut-backs for the past decade. 

Our lives now hang in the balance, with almost NO Medi-cal services for adults! With severely disabled people who have successfully been living independently in their own homes or apartments, with the support of their in-home support service providers, do you think it's right to say, "Well, you have to go live in a nursing home?" You know it would not be right. 

The politicians also know it is not right. They have proven they do not care. The Nursing Home Industry has already benefited, our Stinking asinine governor, made a move last summer that filled me with rage. He gave them millions of dollars to make more beds available for the thousands of people that are going to undoubtedly lose their In-Home Support Services due to the cuts!!! 

This, after stating that IHSS takes so much of the budget in California. Yet he gives millions to the Nursing Home Industry. But even those millions would not come close to preparing the massive numbers of beds that would be needed. The IHSS budget is 1.5% of the entire California budget.

It has been things like this that make me despise the Governor more than any other politician in recent times. BUT let me be very clear! It isn't just this governor, it is the legislators on both sides who voted for this budget. Last summer when we demonstrated in the hallway to the governor's offices, many Democrats came to talk with us, and said, "We are behind you; keep up the good fight!" Many of those, had photo ops with the demonstrators, but all but one went and voted against us. I was so angry, that I didn't feel like our demonstrations were getting through. Yes, I also spoke while the budget committee was hearing testimony, in addition to getting arrested twice, and taking part in other protests. I had to stop protesting and gather my energy. And I have spent 5 hours on that strip in the cold wind, holding signs and waving. But I cannot gather the energy to spend the night or sit in the rain when what we are doing, doesn't seem to be getting through to the folks that can sign our lives away!

What many people refuse to think about, is that we are you; we could be your mother, father, grandmother, brother sister, aunt, uncle, or your children and friends. Disability does not discriminate! It comes to us all. I have a friend in a nursing home, the only things she can do is watch TV and listen to books on CD or tape. I hate seeing her in that place! This is a UC Berkeley Grad who for seven years volunteered at a school and helped second graders learn to read and do math. She was also a writer and performer. Does she belong in that place? No. She has a severe disability, and could not get enough support after her mother died. She lost her job and then her mom, and then lost her roommate after the roommate graduated. Her Regional Center and Supported Living agency failed her. She was sent first to live in a group home, and I'm not sure why she ended up in a nursing home, but as you might guess, it made her already severe depression much worse.  I know there are thousands of people like my friend, who COULD contribute SO MUCH to society if they had the physical support in place.

I have noticed the deafening silence on the Berkeley Disabled listserv, I think, like me, many of my comrades are depressed and terrified and that leads us to inaction, and just worrying a lot about who is going to get us out of bed in the morning, who will bathe us, dress us, cook for us, and feed us, and who will help us go to the bathroom throughout the day. How can we make plans when we are the poor? Many will have no options. 

And yet Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to treat us like criminals! He wants to spend 5 BILLION dollars on high tech cameras that are used by the military and on the U.S. borders. He could provide over 500 people on IHSS with services for a year. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND his logic. One can get a full background check on a person receiving services, or a worker for a lot less. There are places on the Internet that allows people to get as many reports as they want for $40.00 a month. But that is not the point. The point is that the governor, wants to cut 90 percent from the IHSS! Ninety percent! He wants social workers to grade our disabilities on a scale that is highly inadequate, and many, like me have mixed needs that the scale simply can't grade or take into account. Please ask your legislators to cancel this grading system! If anybody grades us, it should be qualified Occupational Therapists!

One last point and I will get off the soapbox! In-Home Supportive Services, accounts for ONLY 1.5 percent of the entire budget! Read that again! ONE point Five percent! Yet it's always been the first thing that this governor wants to cut! The poor the elderly, the disabled are seen as fat to be trimmed EVERY STINKING YEAR! I AM SICK OF IT! Please help! Stop THIS GENOCIDE! FOR IT Will BE GENOCIDE IF ALL THESE CUTS GO THROUGH! Even though the state is in dire straits, Arnold has refused to raise taxes of any kind. The wealthy are not losing medical benefits, they go on living like kings, they own four houses and four cars. THEY SHOULD PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE!!! They get so many tax breaks it makes me sick. They are not "sharing the pain". Besides, 35 million people live in this State, and it makes me wonder how many ARE Employed?

Tamar Raine

THE REAL SOURCE OF WASTE IN CALIF!

THIS KIND OF CRAP IS unspeakably stupid. It denigrates us --> the elderly, and people with disabilities as a class of people without rights, who could be defrauding the system. This Governor has had it in for us from day one! Long before 2 million Californians lost their jobs! You know, I should run for Governor, if for no other reason than to rebut this kind of wastefulness! Arnie wants to buy $5,000 cameras, (yeah you read that right, each one would cost $5,000!!!) such as they use in Iraq and border patrol between Mexico and the states that border it. A more common sense approach would be to use both the cameras and fingerprinting equipment located at DMV! That is IF it were really proven that there is fraud above 2 percent, which I doubt! Anyway, please read on!!! FOLLOW THE $$ TRAIL. I bet anything it's kickback. Gee whiz!

For Immediate Release Contact: Steve Mehlman
UDW Homecare Providers Union
916-804-2569 (cell)

Deborah Doctor
Disability Rights California
510/928-1768 (cell)

STATE PLANS TO SPEND MILLIONS TO PHOTOGRAPH IHSS CONSUMERS DESPITE LACK OF AUTHORITY OR PROOF OF WIDESPREAD FRAUD

Sacramento (March 17) -- Without any authority from the Legislature, the Schwarzenegger Administration is planning to purchase up to $5 million worth of military/security cameras to take pictures of the 450,000 seniors and people with disabilities who receive In Home Supportive Services (IHSS) homecare.

Last year, the Legislature approved the administration’s proposal that county social workers must fingerprint all IHSS consumers as part of a so-called anti-fraud initiative. However, the Legislature neither discussed nor approved photographing consumers. Nor has the administration provided any evidence of how much fraud would be stopped by photographing and fingerprinting these consumers; all IHSS consumers must be visited and assessed at home by county social workers before being approved for the program.

The “MorphoTrak” cameras are currently being used in Iraq and other military locations. According to their manufacturer, they are also recommended for, among other things, “border crossings, gang enforcement, and airport/maritime security.” The camera itself costs $4,200, plus hundreds of dollars more for docking stations and other equipment.
http://www.morpho. com/MorphoTrak/ MorphoTrak/ mt_products. html. Each $5,000 used to buy a “MorphoTrak” camera would purchase nearly 500 hours of IHSS homecare.

Herb Mayer, 79 year old IHSS consumer, chair of the IHSS coalition and a Korean war veteran, said “My social worker knows who I am without needing a $5,000 camera. How can the administration find money for these cameras but no money to keep the IHSS program going?”

The Administration has projected that it will need to purchase 600 to 1,000 of these cameras, costing between $3 million and $5 million. It has borrowed several of these devices from the manufacturer and has solicited Sacramento and San Diego Counties to use them in a pilot project beginning April 1. The District Attorneys in these two counties have been among the strongest proponents of the administration’s anti-fraud campaign. However, a recent report from Sacramento County found a total of only 19 potential cases of IHSS fraud out of 20,365 consumers.

Assemblymember Hector De La Torre (D- South Gate) said: “I am outraged that this administration is again targeting our lowest income seniors and people with disabilities as if they were criminals we need to monitor. How is that we can afford millions for cameras yet we continue to cut their services and the money they live on?”

"The Administration' s proposal to spend $5 million on cameras is ridiculous," said Assemblymember Dave Jones (D-Sacramento) . "The money for each $5,000 camera could instead be used for 500 hours of IHSS care. The Administration has asked Sacramento County to begin a pilot program with loaner cameras on April 1. I am calling on Sacramento District Attorney Jan Scully not to participate in this misguided program."

Assemblyman Alberto Torrico (D-Fremont) states: ”I understand the budget crisis - and I understand that there will be no savings which begin to outweigh the cost of these cameras. When social workers are being laid off and poor elderly Californians are going without services which keep them safe, how can this administration even be considering buying $5,000 cameras?”

“The Governor has once again proposed diverting money from this valuable and cost-effective program”, says Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo). “In addition to his years of budget cuts and criminalizing IHSS workers and their clients, this year he proposes to spend scarce public funds on military-style cameras. I will continue to oppose all reductions to IHSS, especially those which deviate from the core mission of providing life-saving assistance to our vulnerable populations.”

"This Administration' s misguided attack on alleged fraud in the IHSS program has already caused major disruptions to IHSS services for 450,000 elderly Californians who depend on these services," said Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco). "The small investment in home support for the elderly keeps consumers out of expensive nursing homes and saves the state money. We intend to use our legislative oversight power to ensure the Governor does not waste government resources and harm elderly Californians who desperately need In Home Support Services."