Hello everyone, we hope you had a nice holiday and a HAPPY NEW YEAR. Here we are with another legislative session us. You know what that means, well be BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!!!!! In this edition of the newsletter, we will be discussing our NEW Board of Leadership, and, of course, legislation as well as other issues.
Legislation At this time, CDRC does not have any legislation to introduce for the upcoming session. We had a meeting with Delegate Costa in early December to discuss the upcoming 2006 session. We have been working on housing issues surrounding the disability community. We think Delegate Costa is going to introduce legislation pertaining to a housing trust fund. This proposed legislation would give a tax cut to a parent that would put their house in a trust fund for their disabled family member.
We also met with Senator Grosfeld in December to discuss the upcoming session. She will be introducing a bill regarding bridge subsidies. A Bridge Subsidy is funding to cover rent for persons transitioning from Nursing Facilities or State Residential Centers until Section 8, or other funding becomes available. She is introducing another bill that deals with changing apartments into condominiums. When this happens, a person needs to buy the condo instead of being able to rent. Of course, this is very expensive and leaves people in subsidized housing units unable to remain in their homes. This piece of legislation will be a pilot program in Montgomery County. The legislation will set aside a certain number of apartments for persons with disabilities to rent instead of buying.
We met with Senator Kelley in mid December. We discussed the upcoming session, among other issues that are important to CDRC.
Board of Leadership CDRC members elected its new Board of Leadership at our December membership meeting. We had a lot of interested participants that applied for the 5 available positions. John & Kenny would like to thank everyone who applied to the Board of Leadership. We would also like to congratulate the winners. The voting was REALLY close. The winners of each category are as follows:
Wilhemina Burford Was elected to represent ADAPT
James Devore - Was elected to represent People On the Go of Maryland
Anna Burkett Was elected to represent persons with Cognitive Disabilities
Dominic Ridgeway - Was elected to represent persons with Developmental Disabilities
Sylvia Matthews - Was elected to represent persons with any type of disability
CDRC leadership will host a refresher/training day for the 5 winners before our next meeting in January. The purpose of the training day will be to bring all of our winners up to date on CDRC's activities, what committees or advisory groups we are on, what committees or advisory groups we would like to be on, what we will be working on during the legislative session, our work to enforce MFIAA and RTBI (Right To Be Informed), etc.
Maryland Personal Assistance Services Advisory Committee The PASAC needs more consumer representation. CDRC has begun to try to locate consumers to be a part of this important committee. The Maryland Personal Assistance Services Advisory Committee is working to make the Attendant Care Programs in Maryland better for everyone who participates. If you participate in a Personal Care program, let us know.
New Directions CDRC FINALLY received some
good news for you regarding the starting date of the New Directions Waiver. At the last People On the Go quarterly meeting in early December, Angela Rapp-Kennedy of DDA spoke very confidently that
the starting date for New Directions will be sometime in late February. Lets cross our fingers.
Web Site Kenny will continue to update our web page weekly. He will be updating the site with more stories, photos, activities, and information on a regular basis so check the site often. www.thecdrc.org. Also remember to check the Calendar for CDRC activities!
Just a REMINDER, our next CDRC meeting is set for: the FIFTH Sunday of January instead
of the usual fourth.
January 29th
1:00 pm 4:00 pm