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A referendum on whether Baltimore City should create an Affordable Housing Trust Fund will be on the November 8th ballot! This summer, a coalition of advocacy organizations came together as Housing for All and gathered more than 18,000 petition signatures demanding that a referendum on a Charter Amendment be added to the November 2016 Election Ballot.

The Affordable Housing Trust Fund would require Baltimore City to create a fund into which vacant land, existing housing, and abandoned properties would be turned into affordable housing and made available to city residents making 50% or less than the Area Median Income. A housing trust fund is legal entity used to create and sustain affordable housing for those most in need. It is established by local or state government and receives ongoing public funding to support the preservation and production of affordable housing. Over 750 cities, counties, and states have Housing Trust Funds. Baltimore should have an Affordable Housing Trust Fund!

All around the country, but especially in Maryland, people with disabilities have worst case housing needs and are much more likely to need affordable housing than others in our community. Many people with disabilities survive on SSI-level income, which is below the federal poverty limit and about 18% of Area Median Income for the Baltimore Area. The referendum is just a first step – the Affordable Housing Trust Fund would only be created, not funded at this stage – but this model has been used successfully around the country and could be a good way of producing and maintaining affordable housing for those who need it most. For the Affordable Housing Trust Fund to become a reality, it is essential that Baltimore City residents with disabilities vote on November 8th!

The National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) and its member organization, Disability Rights Maryland (DRM), are pleased to see the treatment of individuals with disabilities by law enforcement officers included throughout the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division’s (CRD) recent investigation into the conduct of the Baltimore City Police Department (BPD). NDRN and DRM support the CRD’s efforts to ensure that government agencies act in a manner that protects the rights of community members with disabilities, and complies with the rule of law. Through their work representing individuals with disabilities, the nationwide network of Protection and Advocacy (P&A) agencies often learn of cases involving negative and sometimes extremely dangerous interactions between people with disabilities and police. These interactions often include individuals with mental health disabilities, as well as individuals with sensory, intellectual, developmental and other types of disabilities; and disproportionately affect additional specific communities, particularly people of color.

The CRD report calls for improvement in the following key areas:

• The failure of the BPD to provide basic reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities.

• The failure of the BPD to use common de-escalation techniques on individuals in crisis, resulting in the use of excessive force (e.g. “drive stun mode”), arrest, unnecessary hospitalization, and/or death.

• Deficient training, oversight, and policies to protect individuals with the types of disabilities that officers are likely to encounter in their day-to-day work.

• Lack of collaboration with community partners who may assist BPD in serving individuals with disabilities, thereby avoiding or limiting the need for police intervention.

Negative interactions with police have long been a concern of NDRN and the P&A Network. We hope that the independent voices of individuals with disabilities will be heard clearly, and their needs will stay at the forefront throughout the implementation of the report’s recommendations.
See the full report at: https://www.justice.gov/opa/file/883366/download

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The National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) is the nonprofit membership organization for the federally mandated Protection and Advocacy (P&A) Systems and the Client Assistance Programs (CAP) for individuals with disabilities. Collectively, the Network is the largest provider of legally based advocacy services to people with disabilities in the United States.

Disability Rights Maryland (formerly Maryland Disability Law Center), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is the federally mandated Protection & Advocacy organization charged with advancing and defending the rights of Marylanders with all types of disabilities, of all ages, statewide.

Press Release – DOJ BPD report