Monday, January 22, 2007

Once Again:Assume the Position

It’s happening again, it’s a little thing, but it’s happening again people with disabilities are being inched out of the community a little bit and again. I found out this morning that Transitional Living Center(TLC)a place in Salt Lake where people with sever disabilities can live and learn the skills needed to live as independently as possible. Granted, the disabilities in question are folks with spinal cord injury(SCI) or head injury but these folks need services too and I’ll tell you what these services are not out there in Salt Lake are really anywhere else.

The TLC I a small, 7 unit apartment complex on Salt Lake’s East side. These units are own by the Community Services Council—a local do-gooder operation which is becoming nothing more then a colossal food bank. Food banks are all important, do not get me wrong but to get rid of other things a community truly needs just because of it’s cost or complications that is another thing entirely. The TLC has been a place where folks who haven usually, incurred some sort of spinal cord injury, after they have completed their physical therapy, could go to put into practice those skills learned at PT/OT in the hospital setting. People with SCI with nowhere else to go had the TLC.

When you got an apartment at the TLC it was for at least for six months and more often a year. Not that it took a year to learn these skills as much as it might take a year or longer to find an accessible unit when the person was ready to transition out. The TLC is owned by the Community services Council and managed in conjunction with the independent living center, Housing Authority of Salt Lake City. The TLC also works with service providers to ensure that folks who need attendant care services has access to these services. The TLC is also on a wheelchair accessible bust route. In fact when the accessible bus routes were first designated it was essential that one of the first routes would be NUMBER 5, or Fifth East, right infront of the TLC.

I worked for more then 13 years as housing coordinator for the independent living center. Salt Lake had no designated accessible housing then, 1984 and the City has some designated housing whether it be subsidized housing or private rentals. The privates prices are so high that few if any persons with a disability living on Federal subsidies can consider or be considered to live in one of these units. The Federally subsidized units owned or managed by the PHA’s (public housing authorities) have waiting lists years long. It’s a joke.

Lowell Bennion essentially created the TLC. Lowell Bennion was a truly good person, one of the few to come along. I doubt Lowell would be too happy to see what his organization is being morphed into and that in doing so has caused a rend in the housing fabric of this community large enough to let a whole population to slip through.

It’s happening again, it’s a little thing, but it’s happening again people with disabilities are being inched out of the community a little bit and again. I found out this morning that Transitional Living Center(TLC)a place in Salt Lake where people with sever disabilities can live and learn the skills needed to live as independently as possible. Granted, the disabilities in question are folks with spinal cord injury(SCI) or head injury but these folks need services too and I’ll tell you what these services are not out there in Salt Lake are really anywhere else.

The TLC I a small, 7 unit apartment complex on Salt Lake’s East side. These units are own by the Community Services Council—a local do-gooder operation which is becoming nothing more then a colossal food bank. Food banks are all important, do not get me wrong but to get rid of other things a community truly needs just because of it’s cost or complications that is another thing entirely. The TLC has been a place where folks who haven usually, incurred some sort of spinal cord injury, after they have completed their physical therapy, could go to put into practice those skills learned at PT/OT in the hospital setting. People with SCI with nowhere else to go had the TLC.

When you got an apartment at the TLC it was for at least for six months and more often a year. Not that it took a year to learn these skills as much as it might take a year or longer to find an accessible unit when the person was ready to transition out. The TLC is owned by the Community services Council and managed in conjunction with the independent living center, Housing Authority of Salt Lake City. The TLC also works with service providers to ensure that folks who need attendant care services has access to these services. The TLC is also on a wheelchair accessible bust route. In fact when the accessible bus routes were first designated it was essential that one of the first routes would be NUMBER 5, or Fifth East, right infront of the TLC.

I worked for more then 13 years as housing coordinator for the independent living center. Salt Lake had no designated accessible housing then, 1984 and the City has some designated housing whether it be subsidized housing or private rentals. The privates prices are so high that few if any persons with a disability living on Federal subsidies can consider or be considered to live in one of these units. The Federally subsidized units owned or managed by the PHA’s (public housing authorities) have waiting lists years long. It’s a joke.

Lowell Bennion essentially created the TLC. Lowell Bennion was a truly good person, one of the few to come along. I doubt Lowell would be too happy to see what his organization is being morphed into and that in doing so has caused a rend in the housing fabric of this community large enough to let a whole population to slip through.

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