Even
though
the
mental
health
funding
news
from
Springfield
grows
more and
more
grim,
there is
some
good
news on
housing
for
people
with
mental
illness.
The
first
is the
progress
of the
lawsuit
Williams
vs.
Quinn.
In that
case, a
group of
housing
advocates
including
Equip
for
Equality
and the
ACLE
filed
suit
against
the
State of
Illinois
over its
practice
of
confining
so many
people
with
mental
illness
to
special
nursing
homes
known as
Institutions
for
Mental
Disease
(IMDs).
Illinois
leads
the
nation
in the
number
of
people
with
mental
illness
living
in
nursing
homes.
The
plaintiffs
contended
that
forcing
people
with
mental
illness
and no
other
disability
to live
in these
IMDs
violated
a 1990’s
US
Supreme
Court
decision
in the
Olmstead
case
which
called
on the
states
to
provide
housing
for
people
with
disabilities
in the
least
restrictive
manner.
Illinois’
practice
of
putting
people
with
mental
illness
in IMDs
so
clearly
violated
the
Court’s
ruling
that
Illinois
has
agreed
to an
out of
court
settlement,
which
calls
for the
State to
move
5,000
people
out of
IMDs and
into
community
based
housing
over the
next
five
years.
On
September
9, US
Judge
William
Hart,
who is
hearing
the
case,
held a
fairness
hearing
where
people
affected
by the
settlement
have the
opportunity
to
comment
on the
proposed
settlement.
Fred
Friedman
from the
consumer
advocacy
group
Next
Steps
has an
excellent
summary
of the
case and
the
fairness
hearing:
http://www.nextstepsnfp.org/Release_settlement.html
It’s
worth a
look
The
other
piece of
good
news
concerns
the
Housing
Task
force, a
community
group
supported
by NAMI
BA and
four
other
area
NAMI
chapters,
that is
working
to build
a 30
unit
permanent
supportive
housing
apartment
for
people
with
mental
illness
in
Arlington
Heights.
Early in
September
the Task
Force’s
developer,
the
Daveri
Development
Group,
was
awarded
$8.4
million
in tax
credit
funding
by the
Illinois
Housing
Development
Authority
(IHDA)
to fund
the
project.
So far
the Task
Force/Daveri
group
has had
a series
of
successes.
The
group
has a
lot in
north
Arlington
Heights
and it
has
lined up
Section
8 rent
subsidies
from the
Housing
Authority
of Cook
County
to help
residents
pay the
rent on
their
apartments.
And they
have
made a
great
deal of
progress
in
getting
the
zoning
and
permits
from the
Arlington
Heights
municipal
authorities.
So far
the
project
has been
approved
by the
Arlington
Heights
planning
and
zoning
staff,
the
Housing
Commission,
the
Design
Commission,
the Plat
and Sub
Commission
and the
Plan
Commission.
The
group’s
only
setback,
and it
is a big
one, was
that
last
May, in
the face
of a
large
and
angry
crowd of
NIMBY’s
(NIMBY
stands
for “not
in my
back
yard)
the
Arlington
Heights
village
board
voted
4-3 to
reject
the
proposal.
So the
group
has the
site,
the rent
subsidies
and the
financing.
All that
is
lacking
is final
village
approval.
The
actual
IHDA
grant
will not
be made
until
Arlington
Heights
finally
does
approve
the
project.
So the
group is
tweaking
the
proposal
to meet
the
Village
Trustees’
stated
objections
and
hopes to
resubmit
the
project
to the
village
later
this
fall.
If you’d
like to
help the
Task
Force
make
this
vision a
reality,
visit
http://housingtaskforce.org/
for
information
on what
you can
do.
