By: Hinkle, Prior & Fischer, Attorneys-at-Law
For years, the availability of affordable and appropriate housing for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities has eluded New Jersey’s most vulnerable population. As an increasing population of people with disabilities become adults and leave their educational programs, a greater demand is placed on the adult service delivery system. Nowhere is that demand more pronounced than in the area of housing. Some would say this issue is now of crisis proportions.
To help reduce some of the strain on the system, the Administration has included funds in the Fiscal Year 2016 budget now pending before the New Jersey Legislature which will provide housing vouchers to 200 individuals with disabilities. While this is a good start and while the advocacy community is very grateful for the Administration’s efforts; more is needed in order to prevent this crisis from growing even larger.
This is why our friends at the Supportive Housing Association of New Jersey (SHA) are organizing a campaign known as “Opening 1000 Doors.” This campaign seeks to encourage the New Jersey Legislature to add funds to the Administration’s budget sufficient to provide housing vouchers to 1000 individuals with disabilities. One important piece of this campaign is to gather 1000 signatures on an online petition asking the Administration and Legislature to do more.
The petition can be found on SHA’s website at www.shanj.org. Please join us in signing the petition and let your voice – and all the voices of those who need housing – be heard.
We can no longer afford to allow waiting lists for housing to grow without providing relief to those who have waited for so long. We can no longer stand by and do nothing while families lose hope. We can no longer sit and watch aging parents die before their sons and daughters receive housing.
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Hinkle, Prior, Fischer & Oberweis attorneys are available to speak to your organization or constituents on a wide variety of relevant disability topics. 