Meeting People Where They Are: Partnerships with 

Independent Living and Assistive Technology 

Programs to Address Homelessness and Housing 

Stability for People with Disabilities and Older Adults

June 29, 2023 | Webinar Transcript

ERICA McFADDEN: Hi everyone, we’ll get started in a minute.

I want to welcome you all to today's webinar by the Housing and Services Resource 

Center. It's called “Meeting People Where They Are.” I want to introduce myself; my 

name is Erica McFadden. I'm the director of the Office of Independent Living Programs

at the Administration for Community Living. We are an operating division under the US 

Department of Health and Human Services. I will be serving as the facilitator for today's 

webinar, and it's a privilege to have so many of you here with us today. Your 

involvement in this webinar is essential for us to have an engaging discussion. So we 

look forward to that. 

A couple items we wanted to go over as we get this started. One thing I want you all to 

know is that this meeting is being recorded, so, if you are on the meeting that means 

you gave consent. All attendees on this meeting have been muted to ensure audio 

quality.

We are asking people to please use the chat to make comments and submit your 

questions at any time. You do not have to wait until the very end. You can put them in 

the Q&A feature on the Zoom dashboard. We also reserve time at the end to address 
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your questions. You can also email a question or comment to HSRC@ACL.HHS.gov, 

which is on the slide. Just so you know, everybody should have a copy of the slides and 

receive them following the webinar. They will also be shared again along with a

feedback form for today's webinar.

Finally, throughout the webinar we will be using QR codes on the screen. This is the 

one time you can use your phone. (Laughs) We encourage you to do so. There will be 

clickable links in the chat that we will share with you as well. So, consider having your 

phone handy. Next slide.

A note on accessibility: as you see, we have an interpreter today. Emily Stiles, thank 

you for being here. She will be visible throughout the webinar. You can enlarge the 

window for the ASL interpreter by using the pin feature. Simply click on the interpreter’s 

window and select the pin icon to make their window larger.

To ensure the ASL interpreter will be visible in the webinar recording, we’ve also asked

presenters and panelists to limit their use of their own camera, only when speaking. For 

those using screen readers wanting to silence unwanted chatter in the chat and QA 

boxes, activate the speech on demand feature by pressing insert, space bar, and then 

pressing the letter S on the keyboard. OK, next slide.

Before we get to today's topic, we wanted to ask you all a question, if you could respond 

to the short poll. Does your program have a partnership with your state’s Assistive 

Technology Program?

If you can select one of the answers that would apply to you, we would appreciate that. 

And then onto the next slide.

While we’re processing the results on the poll I want to say a few words about the 

Housing and Services Resource Center. Or what we affectionately call it, HSRC. This is 

a partnership between the US Department of Health and Human Services and Housing 

and Urban Development.

The HSRC is part of an interagency initiative to streamline and expand access to 

affordable, accessible housing and the critical services that make community living 

possible. To that end, the HSRC sponsors cross-sector partnerships between

organizations and systems that provide housing resources and homelessness services 

across health care, mental health, independent living, and other supportive services.

After the webinar, I hope you will look at the HSRC website noted on this slide, and we 

will share an email address at the end as well. So, you can be in touch with us and get 

periodic updates on what we are up to.

We have the poll results. I would like to remind everyone to use the chat and the Q&A

function throughout the webinar. We really want to hear your comments and questions. 

It looks like it's across the board on people's partnerships with Assistive Technology 
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Programs: 17% say they have formal partnership, 27% said they do not partner but they 

may in the future, and some even provide I&R. Thank you all for doing that today.

We just want to encourage those of you that have formal partnerships with your AT 

providers or your Assistive Technology Programs, we would love to know who you are 

involved with. If you could write down or type in the chat who those partners are with 

your agencies, we would love to know that. That is a great example of cross-sector 

partnerships. OK, next slide. 

Now to the main event, why you are all here for today's webinar. This is a quick 

overview of what we will discuss today. We will be learning about dynamic and 

responsive partnerships between our Centers for Independent Living, our continuums of 

care, and our statewide Assistive Technology Programs.

I will first talk about the Centers for Independent Living, or CILs, as we call them, and 

their role in assisted people with disabilities who are experiencing or at risk of 

homelessness. And then we will hear from Rob and the way statewide Assistive 

Technology Programs can help keep people housed. Then we’re going to hear from our

three partners in New York and take some time to talk to them about what they are 

experiencing in the field and how their collaboration helps address homelessness in 

their communities. We will end with Q&A from you before we close, so be sure to type 

your questions into the Q&A function. 

And so, first let's start off by talking about Centers for Independent Living. There are 

more than 350 federally funded and authorized Centers for Independent Living in every 

state and territory. They are led by and for people with disabilities.

They are nonprofit, nonresidential, and they provide a plethora of services like 

information, referral, peer support, independent living skills training, and individual and 

systems advocacy to remove barriers that they have based on disability. They also help 

people transition out of homeless shelters or institutions and nursing homes, and into 

community-based housing. 

With homelessness service providers seeing an increase in serving people with 

disabilities and older adults who are experiencing homelessness, CILs can use their 

unique disability-driven perspective to help people get housing. They can connect them 

to services that will help them stay housed. They provide services to help them stay 

permanently housed. On that note, I know later on in the panel we will have John talk 

about CILs in his presentation, but I will first turn it over to Rob. Do you want to talk 

about assistive technology? 

ROB GROENENDAAL: Thank you Erica. My name is Rob Groenendaal, and I serve as 

the Assistive Technology Program Manager at the Administration for Community Living 

in the Center for Innovation and Partnership.
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This slide has a picture of two people using a communication device. Aging and 

disability is a natural process that is part of life and the human experience. Assistive 

technology is any item, piece of equipment, or product system that is used by a person

to perform functions that would otherwise be difficult or impossible.

AT devices and services enable individualized adaptations to everyday challenges. 

Depending on need and implementation, AT ranges from no or low-tech to mid-tech and 

high-tech. The Assistive Technology Act programs were first authorized by Congress in 

1988 to help people with disabilities across the lifespan access technology solutions 

that address functional needs and challenges at home and in the community, at school 

and on the job as well for accessibility as well as mobility.

The AT Act was recently reauthorized in late December 2022 as the 21st Century 

Assistive Technology Act. State and territory AT programs enable people to make 

informed decisions through AT device demonstrations and short-term loans. A person 

can experience and borrow an AT device, and try it out at home in the community, to 

determine if that device meets a person’s specific needs.

This slide has a picture of a person using a mobile support device to safely enjoy 

gardening at a planter box. Assistive technology, durable medical equipment, and home 

modifications enhance housing accessibility. Technology specialists work with 

individuals who have functional needs to determine which AT or home modifications are 

appropriate for that person's home environment.

AT programs help people to live in the home of their choice through devices and daily 

living activities, safety improvements in the home such as installation of grab bars and 

hand railings, and accessibility modifications. This includes ramps and accessible 

bathrooms. Working with housing agencies and aging and disability networks is key to 

advancing housing stability in the community. Next slide please.

To locate the AT program in your state or territory, go to the AT3 Center website on the 

slide, which contains three small pictures of people using personal devices. I will hand it 

back to you, Erica. 

ERICA McFADDEN: Thank you, Rob. On that note, we will talk about continuums of 

care next.

On the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, I'm sorry, HUD, has 

continuums of care. These are backbone organizations that are designed to permit a 

community-wide commitment to end homelessness. The fact they are a coalition of 

community-based organizations means they work together to find solutions to 

homelessness. 

So, continuums of care, or CoCs, are funded by HUD, which awards over $2 billion 

each year to around 400 CoCs. They then allocate funding to local nonprofits, state and 
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local governments, and public housing authorities to fund specific projects designed to 

reduce homelessness.

We will be putting a link in the chat to a page that will provide you with more information 

about the CoC program, including a list of all the 2022 awards, so you can see as a 

reference. There is also a link on the slide as well. Next slide please. 

So, now we will be joined by three of our wonderful partners in New York State. We 

have John Zick, who is the chief operating officer of a CIL called AIM Independent 

Living Center. Kelsey Addy is the director of planning for CARES of New York, Inc.; this 

is the collaborative applicant for HUD CoC program. Finally, we have Melinda Dolezal,

the TRAID Director at the New York State Justice Center, the state’s AT program.

They will each share a little bit about the work the partnership helped inform and benefit 

the work they are doing to address rising homelessness among older adults and people

with disabilities. With that said, John, I will turn it over to you. 

JOHN ZICK: Thank you so much Erica. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is John 

Zick. I'm a chief operating officer at the Independent Living Center in New York. We are 

located upstate in the southern tier about two hours south of Rochester and an hour 

west of Binghamton. I know Erica already told us what a CIL is, but as a reminder, these 

are peer-run support centers for people with disabilities.

Traditionally, I think Erica mentioned it, nonresidential. Traditionally they do not operate 

housing or residential services; we primarily try to get people out of institutions. And to 

promote integrated and independent living opportunities.

So, why am I here? We've known for a very long time that finding accessible and 

affordable housing for people with disabilities and CIL consumers has always been a 

challenge, and people with disabilities are at increased risk of homelessness.

Because of this, AIM decided we needed to act and shift away from tradition in an 

innovative way. If you want to see systems change, sometimes we need to change.

Next slide please.

About six years ago we began to explore how we could create housing opportunities for 

people with disabilities most in need, i.e., homeless or at risk of homelessness. This all 

started when we applied for a grant opportunity in New York to provide permanent 

supportive housing to people with disabilities.

There are always two different components to supportive housing; there is the support 

services side and then there is the actual physical housing, the capital side. By law, 

Independent Living Centers or CILs are not supposed to have residential housing. So, 

what AIM did was start a separate corporation to hold properties. CIL is a support 

service provider and this new corporation in community living would be essentially a 

property owner and run the property. Next slide please. 
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In the last six years, we have done quite a bit of work. As we said, AIM currently 

operates two permanent supportive housing projects that are independent and 

integrated in the community. We have a third project that is nearing the startup; we 

hope to have it operational by the end of 2023. And we have secured two additional 

permanent supportive housing grants with a targeted opening of 2025. 

The populations we are currently serving are seniors who need assistance with an ADL,

veterans with a disability, people with intellectual or developmental disabilities, youth,

people with substance use disorders, and ones in 2025 are more senior housing, 

veterans, and chronically homeless housing. Next slide please.

Through this process over the last six years, we had to work with our local CoC for 

support. When we started, I did not know what this was; now I'm very familiar with what 

CoC is. We learn more about the local system for homelessness services, and during 

the process we provided our insight and expertise on disability and what people with 

disabilities were facing as it relates to housing. Partnership proved so fruitful we were 

actually asked to join the CoC board, which I did in 2018 or ‘19. And then later on, I was 

asked to consider running for the CoC co-chair position. I'd been in that capacity since 

2021.

As a representative of the CoC, AIM acts in the best interest of all people who are 

homeless, but we continue to ensure that the system considers disability and its 

strategies and practices. Next slide please.

So, the partners in AIM works hand-in-hand with CARES of New York. We really work 

with CoC at their paid staff. You will hear from Kelsey in a few minutes. We work to 

include the supply of affordable and accessible housing in the state, and we have

sought assistance and expertise from the AT program. We will hear from them in a little 

bit.

The program provides short-term loans in part to allow people to access their homes.

These partners are also working to provide solutions to homelessness and housing 

instability for people of New York, by making the existing housing more accessible. 

Next slide please.

I don't even know if these are best practices or just a little bit of advice, but some 

common sense probably as well. Partnerships can help bridge the gaps in service 

delivery. Understanding the process and red tape of various regulations and programs 

allows for a greater understanding of how best to serve shared populations. So, if you 

have the right people at the table, you are in a far better position to problem solve or get 

through that red tape or come up with innovative solutions. Sometimes it's best to step 

outside your comfort zone and use your voice in a way that maybe you are not 

traditionally used to.
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Next slide please, the next one may not be mine, this may be the last thing I have to 

say. I have one more slide. 

Success story, so, we have 20 operational units now. We had 10 people when we first 

opened in 2019, our first project. Ten of those folks who rented up in the first month are 

still in their housing. A lot of better residents found this to be super beneficial.

Resident recently told us (Reads) "Transition from a skilled nursing facility to this 

program gave me opportunities that I had not had nor what I would have had. Gave me 

the opportunity to transition to a nice, safe, affordable unit. I had literally nothing and 

would not have had anything. It is allowing me to be out in public. Due to my disability, I 

thought I would always be stuck inside. Meeting friends, having the support here has 

certainly helped my mental health." So, that is a real-world kind of experience from 

someone our partnership has helped. 

And with that, I think I am now passing it off to our AT partner, Melinda Dolezal. 

MELINDA DOLEZAL: Thank you John, thank you everybody for being here on the 

session on a lovely afternoon; hopefully it's lovely where you are.

As John said, my name is Melinda Dolezal, and I'm the director of the TechnologyRelated Assistance for Individuals with Disabilities Program, the AT program in New 

York. If you have not had contact with your state AT program, I highly recommend you 

check out the AT3 link. We get questions all the time, I got one yesterday from someone 

in New Jersey asking whether program was. I'm happy to get you guys in touch if you 

are not sure. 

I will just give you an overview of how we do things in New York as far as our AT 

program and how it relates to John and Kelsey's work with homelessness in their 

region. If you go to the next slide please.

Our services in New York are pretty much the same in many ways as services that you 

will see in your different states as well. If you go to the next slide, without going into too 

much detail, we offer things such as device loans, kind of like a library of taking things 

home to see if they will work for you or for the person you are working with. There are 

12 regional TRAID centers in New York. They offer loans as well as demonstrations, 

which is comparing and contrasting devices to see which will work best for somebody. 

We offer training, public awareness, technical assistance, everything that falls under the 

AT Act. Many of our centers also do 3D printing.

The work at AIM has made a huge impact in the region. I oversee the statewide 

program in terms of the services that we are offering in data collection. But I would be 

remiss if I did not mention Hannah Harness, the TRAID staff at AIM. She’s fantastic. 

She consults and provides technical assistance for the homeless housing project that 
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serves people with a variety of backgrounds in [...] County. The other 11 TRAID centers 

are doing work in their various regions with people of all ages and all demographics.

These are a couple examples. There are thousands of kinds of equipment out there that 

would fall into assistive technology. Each center has its own inventories and its own

equipment. If you start up in the picture in the top left, that is some assistive technology 

for someone to use the bathroom. It's a movable stand that can help somebody brace

themselves. There's many different types of equipment that can be used for these 

different things. 

The blue item slightly to the right is a device that can help somebody get out of bed; this 

helps leverage them in order to do so. The last picture in the top right is a device that is 

used to help somebody stir food in a bowl. The bottom left is an administration device 

for medication for people who might forget; it has an alarm on it and can be locked, so 

people cannot get in and move things around.

Next – and that is a sock aid to help somebody get dressed that may be unable to. 

Maybe they have some injuries to their back or do not have a lot of flexibility. This is a 

great device and very simple and easy to use. 

Some of our stuff can be as simple as large print playing cards, which you can see 

there, and someone wants to get out and spend time with her friends but maybe as they 

get older need something extra to be able to see clearly. And then on the right all the 

way there is an alarm clock. This particular alarm clock has a disc to the right that 

vibrates to help somebody wake up that may be hard of hearing. This is extra loud as 

well, which will help somebody. These are just some examples of daily living devices. 

With select our inventory based on feedback from community members and 

stakeholders. 

So, people that we partner with such as Department of Health, we work for them for 

Money Follows the Person as well as early intervention for the little guys, birth to three

years old. We also work with ACCES-VR, which is a state vocational services agency, 

so, we have the most variety of equipment as possible that people can use at home,

school, and at work. 

Of the 12 TRAID centers, we have a great variety. Seven are independent living centers 

just like AIM is in the region. We love our Independent Living Centers; they are one-stop 

shops for everything from benefits advisement, many of them have resources, not all 

but some of them have resources for food banks, different waiver enrollments. 

Of the other centers that are not Independent Living Centers, we really encourage them 

to get in touch with those in the region. Three are human services agencies such as 

cerebral palsy associations. We have one that is a wraparound service-based agency to 

our state universities.
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So, our center at the University of Buffalo and SUNY Plattsburg, for those of you have 

been way up north, one is a University Center of Excellence in Developmental 

Disabilities. All 12 bring amazing flavor to the table and are great at what they do. And 

they do it all differently based on the feedback in the region. So, we can go to the next 

slide. 

How do we do with the assistive technology in housing? If you go to the next slide.

As I mentioned, we work with the Department of Health for Money Follows the Person. 

We focus a lot on helping people transition out of nursing homes and congregate 

settings. Between 2020 and 2022, we helped over 2,500 people transition out of nursing 

homes and back into independent housing across New York State. If they needed 

equipment we helped them borrow it; this helps to maintain independence at home and 

in the community. We also provided training and technical assistance to aging staff. 

I apologize I do tend to speak a little bit quickly. I want to make sure that other speakers 

have plenty of time to share their very valuable information. So, we try to support people 

in the field as well as the people that are borrowing our equipment as well. So, they can 

share this information in as many settings as possible. If you can go on to the next slide. 

Each of our 12 TRAIID centers works with various community organizations. We have 

two examples. One of them, in Plattsburgh, works with Alzheimer’s Disease Assistance 

Center’s Caregiver Support Initiative, which works with family members and staff that 

are supporting family members to take care of aging parents or aging relatives so that

they have the equipment you need for the family to stay independent at home as much 

possible. 

In wraparound services of the Hudson Valley's Project ACT helps people discharging 

from nursing homes find equipment in the community that is no longer needed that can 

be donated to individuals to keep, to maintain their independence. If you can go on to 

the next slide.

Just some other notes about New York, really quickly, we do provide temporary loans 

as I said, very much like a library. People can borrow from us, either the person using 

the AT or their family members, the staff they work with, in order to help them—it does

not matter to us as long as the AT is applicable. We do not do home modifications in 

New York, but we do share resources that can help people, which includes waiver 

programs like our home and community-based services waiver.

There are low-interest AT loan programs in New York such as the National Disability 

Institute and the Equipment Loan Fund, and there are various university organizations 

we can refer people to as well. But several devices that we have been able to loan 

people that we can go in and provide to somebody and then successfully take them 

back once they are no longer needed are things like temporary grab bars for bathrooms, 

door alarms, some types of ramps that can be like suitcase ramps that can be 
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temporarily put in as long as it's ADA compliant; we want people to be safe and able to 

maintain independence. 

The last piece of information that I have for you is my contact information. This contact 

information is on the AT3 website, but if you ever have questions about your AT 

programs or would like to go over anything, please feel free to reach out. That is my

direct email and my phone number. With that, I will pass it off to Kelsey so she can 

share her awesome information as well. 

KELSEY ADDY: Thank you very much, Melinda. My name is Kelsey Addy. I am the 

director of planning with CARES of New York. This is a nonprofit organization based in 

Albany that empowers communities to end homelessness through community planning, 

program data, supportive housing, and awareness building. Next slide please.

We achieve this mission in a number of ways, including owning and operating

supportive housing, as well as being the administrative arm of several continuums of 

care in upstate New York, like John mentioned. The piece of work I will reference the 

most today is our role as a CoC collaborative applicant and planning lead.

You already heard a little bit about this, but I will go deeper into what is a continuum of 

care for those of you who may not be familiar.

A continuum of care is a federal funding stream through HUD and the planning body.

CoC funding provides funding to address homelessness largely through funding rental 

assistance and support services. Those eligible to apply include nonprofits, Tribal

entities, and government agencies.

And there are a variety of types of housing programs that you can design with CoC 

funding. This includes things like long-term Permanent Supportive Housing or bridge 

programs like Rapid Re-housing. But ultimately, the takeaway is that funding is intended

to serve households experiencing homelessness, who have the most severe service 

needs.

As mentioned before, the term CoC is also a planning body that is made up of a board, 

membership, and committees. Stakeholders join the continuum of care and work on 

different communities in an effort to inform how CoC funding is spent, and to

collaboratively work on processes to best address homelessness in their area. 

CARES’s role in this as a collaborative applicant of the continuum of care is to support

the annual funding application to HUD for these housing programs and to work on a 

year-round basis with the board, membership, and committees to move locally identified 

work forward to best address homelessness in the area.

AIM, you heard from John earlier, is part of the NY 501 Continuum of Care, which is in 

the southern tier of New York State.
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Ultimately, we are very lucky to have AIM on the CoC board, as one of the CoC’s goals, 

and one of HUD’s expectations, is the CoC is representative of relevant organizations 

serving homelessness populations within the CoC area.

We see many benefits as a result of AIM being on the continuum of care board and 

from attempting to ensure that we have a board of diverse community providers.

So, first having players at the table who were not entrenched in CoC work allows for 

good questioning about how COC operates. This ensures that we are really doing 

necessary level-setting work all the time, so we are welcoming to new members who 

may not know the alphabet soup. It also brings a fresh perspective to the table, 

questioning how things have maybe always been done but could be done in a different 

way that is more effectively reaching our goals. 

The second is having AIM and other agencies that serve various populations at the 

table allows for representative input on how to prioritize COC funding based on the 

needs that those agencies are seeing. 

Third and probably most important is collaboration has allowed us to better meet the 

needs of those experiencing homelessness and living with disabilities. What we have 

seen is that when agencies collaborate to streamline housing and services, that burden 

of coordinating is taken off of the client. Making it easier for those experiencing 

challenging circumstances to get the support that they need.

So, an example of this that John had talked about is how AIM developed permanent 

support housing for persons experiencing homelessness and living with disabilities. In 

implementing that program, AIM has coordinated with CoC to take clients off of CoC 

community-wide waitlists when they have openings. This coordination ensures that 

clients are not having to apply to multiple programs to access housing and services. 

This really puts the burden of the coordination on us as agencies and service providers. 

And fourth, when agencies collaborate across systems of care for support, it allows for 

sharing of best practices.

As you heard CILs are peer-run support centers; similarly CoC is deeply committed to 

having peers and persons with lived expertise of homelessness make up its 

membership and boards. We have a lot we can learn from AIM on how to establish 

peer-run leadership, and we look forward to doing that. Next slide please.

I just want to thank you for your time and having me, and I look forward to the Q&A 

portion.

ERICA McFADDEN: Thank you so much Kelsey for sharing that. I want to thank all of 

our amazing presenters for the information they shared with us today. I ask you all to 

stick around, so that we can answer some of the questions that are in the chat.
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But while we pull those, I just want to ask you all, I know earlier we had asked on the 

poll if you had partnerships with your AT programs, I know some of the AT programs 

are an AT program. So, yes I do (Laughs). This is your chance to be able to answer 

your question on if your agency partnered with CILs in your state. We do not have a poll 

for this one, but if you can just put it into the chat, that will help us to know who all is 

partnering with who. If you have not partnered with a local Center for Independent 

Living, we’ll also put a link in the slide and on the chat, for you to be able to access that. 

We are up to our question-and-answer component, and I will just kick it off with a 

question for the panel that was received from KC Austern. (Reads) "While permanent 

supportive housing is vital here in my area, we see significant areas with folks who are 

currently homeless and being in shelters that are unable to support their care needs 

with AT or other supports. Have you all found any ways of addressing the short-term 

needs while permanent housing is found?" Does anybody on the panel want to be able 

to tackle that question?

JOHN ZICK: Sure, Melinda please. 

MELINDA DOLEZAL: I mean as far as TRAID, we do loan certain types of devices to 

people whether they are homeless or not, for us it does not matter if the person's 

housing situation or background, obviously some things that are bigger or have a lot 

more stuff to them would be difficult, but we have loaned things like durable medical 

equipment for mobility are some of the most common ones.

We have had referrals from our No Wrong Door Agency in New York, which is New 

York Connects. We had a woman who was referred to us whose home had burned 

down, and she was living in a hotel. We got her a wheelchair to be able to navigate until

more permanent housing was found for her. For now there is not a perfect answer, but 

as far as TRAID is concerned, we will continue to be a resource for people in that 

situation.

ERICA McFADDEN: Thank you Melinda, and does anybody else have any other

comments on that?

OK, then I have specific questions for all of you, and for those attending today, if you 

have questions you want our panel to address related to this issue about homelessness 

and AT, please feel free to put it into the chat. The first question I have is for AIM, John,

what do you think is one milestone your CIL would be unable to reach without the 

partnership you have now? Think of it before and now, what has been the biggest

difference? 

JOHN ZICK: Honestly. we would not have our housing program without the expertise 

and the leadership and partnership of CARES of NY and the CoC in general. We knew 

there was a need in the people we were serving for housing and we wanted to help find 

a solution, but we had no expertise in it. We did not know how to really go about
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establishing more housing. And going about it the right way, being a part of a larger

partnership locally, the homelessness supportive services system.

We really leaned on our partners in the CoC and our partners in CARES to provide us. 

And it's been mutually beneficial. We have been able to increase the stock of 

permanent supportive housing. And we have been able to lend our disability expertise 

to all of our other partners who are addressing homelessness locally. 

ERICA McFADDEN: Thank you, John; I appreciate that.

This is a question that continues to come up around funding for people with disabilities 

who need AT but cannot afford it. Because they are in poverty, this came from Harm 

Tarrant, but I know we had another question if it's covered under health insurance as 

well.

Specifically, Harm brought up we have a donate and recycle program for AT, but there 

is not much funding outside of their CIL for funding besides donations. I don't know if 

anyone wants to tackle funding for AT and what options are available or if there's 

anything under insurance that would cover that. 

MELINDA DOLEZAL: I can take that one.

ERICA McFADDEN: Thanks, Melinda. 

MELINDA DOLEZAL: You're welcome. In New York there are two low-interest loan 

programs that are very underutilized. The first is the Equipment Loan Fund, which is

operated by the Commission for the Blind, which provides, like I said, low-interest loans. 

It is underutilized. Almost nobody applies who would probably benefit from it. They are 

very flexible. We understand that people, many people are on limited income and it’s

especially difficult now. When I say that they will go as low as $10 payments a month. 

They are fantastic.

We also encourage people to explore things like the HCBS Waiver. There are other 

waivers in New York that would sometimes cover home modifications and assistive 

technology. Some assistive technology is covered by insurance, but not everything. If 

anybody is ever denied or has questions about it, there is Disability Rights New York. 

Every state should have a similar type of agency that helps with questions related to 

eligibility for things like Medicaid or denial for different things, even outside of assistive 

technology.

You can also check your state PNA, protection and advocacy agency, for us it is DRNY;

they have a specific wing of their agency that has a PAAT, or Protection and Advocacy 

for Assistive Technology. We try to give people as many bits of information as possible 

and try to know what organizations in certain counties might be able to help as well.
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So, your local Lions Club, Rotary, a lot of times they have community projects like this 

that will help with modification; not all of them. Some of them even have their own 

inventories, their own loan closets. In New York, TRAID is not the only game in town. 

We want to know and collaborate with who your neighbors are and who your networks 

are. 

ERICA McFADDEN: Thank you. I appreciate that; that is really helpful. It seems like 

there's a lot of questions too around AT. I know there's been a lot of talk about the rise 

of homelessness among people with disabilities and older adults.

I think for any of you on this panel, can you speak about how any of your programs 

assist with discharge planning from institutions for people that have histories of 

homelessness, like chronic homelessness?

And is there any data collected on the successful efforts? I'm thinking, Kelsey, is there 

anything with a CoC that they are collecting? Can any of you speak about that, how you 

are addressing chronic homelessness and how these programs assist? 

KELSEY ADDY: Sure, I can start by saying discharge planning is a topic that comes up 

a lot among continuums of care from all sorts of systems, from re-entry, from criminal 

justice, health care, mental health care. This is certainly a challenge. I think that the 

more we can partner with those other systems, for example educate on our communitywide waitlist, which is called coordinated entry, and the process for supporting 

households in applying for housing through the system, the more we can hopefully 

make those transitions as smooth as possible. I don’t know if anyone else would add 

anything.

JOHN ZICK: As Kelsey mentioned, there are several different types of institutional 

settings, but as an Independent Living Center, I think Melinda was touching on this, we 

have a lot of different programs that work with folks as they discharge from long-term 

care, like a skilled nursing setting to set up a successful discharge to make sure all the 

services, equipment, is in place for a successful discharge. 

That is just one variety; it certainly does get more challenging as you talk about leaving 

incarceration or sometimes mental health settings. But AIM does have a role to play in 

some discharges from institutional settings. We find that there are far more successful 

when there is a collaborative plan in place between an institution and a communitybased provider.

KELSEY ADDY: I just thought of one more thing I wanted to add. This is Kelsey. One of 

the major challenges when we have these conversations about discharge planning is 

that there is so much more need for housing than there is available. And so, I think the 

other part of this equation is the development of housing. That is why we are so grateful 

to players like AIM and John for stepping in that field even though it is not traditionally 
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been stepped into by their agency. Without creating additional housing opportunities, we 

will always have this bottleneck effect. 

ERICA McFADDEN: Thank you, Kelsey. Yes this is one of those wicked problems that 

will continue unless we engage in these collaborative partnerships. I also want to start 

another question for the group.

What is the most creative solution—I guess, Melinda, this is for you. I think a lot of 

people are wondering what kind of AT should be used in some of these shelter settings 

or short-term settings or transition settings. What is the most creative solution you have

implemented to meet an accessibility need, for someone who is experiencing 

homelessness?

MELINDA DOLEZAL: Wow! There's so much out there. Creativity wise, I will back up 

and say we get asked this a lot, what is the most common thing that will apply to a big 

group of people? I really want to emphasize that each person is unique in terms of what 

their needs are, so we have had questions about things like mobility. What is the best 

type of mobility device for somebody, and you have to look at a lot of different things, 

like are they able ambulate for certain amount of distance where they are looking to 

move, how wide are the doorframes? Are there steps? Is there a ramp? Does there

need to be a ramp? How high are the counters if they are in a wheelchair? Are they able 

to get at these different things? I would say rather than saying what are the most 

common pieces of equipment, look at the person in particular with the person-centered

approach as much as possible, and look at the types of AT that are out there.

Maybe a roll-ater for certain types of things, that is basically a walker with a seat, that is 

what we hear quite a lot of people describe it as. If they need a wheelchair because of 

lack of ambulation but do they need a power chair? An electric—not an electric but a

manual wheelchair or transport chair? 

Creativity wise, there are more and more things coming up in terms of smart home 

technology. Probably a lot of you use this in your own homes, maybe not realize it, 

these are things like Alexa. They can control things like lighting, whether or not 

somebody's at the door. They can have a lot to do with whether or not someone needs 

to call 911. A lot of times they are inexpensive; people think they're more expensive 

than they are. 

We help people be successful with minimal pieces of equipment like that, if somebody is 

worried about safety in a residence or whether that somebody is able to maintain safety 

once they are there. We are doing a lot of things with 3D printing for the time being; 

when I say time being, we are planning indefinitely as well. Little things can go a long 

way. Some things we’re making are things like zipper pulls or key cards for

communication devices for people that may have difficulty getting to a button on an iPad 

without it. I don't want to go on too long, but I would say some people respond really 

well to less technical things that are lower-tech, and some to the more high-tech.
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I wish I could give you more examples, again I could go on all day. If you're curious, 

please feel free to reach out to me. Each case is unique in terms of somebody might 

need just the tiniest little thing.

I will say one quick story. Not so much about, sort of about independence at home. We 

had a gentleman with Parkinson's come in who had difficulty feeding himself because of 

tremors. There the device called a Liftware spoon, if you've never seen it it's a selfbalancing spoon. This counterbalances a tremor. He was able to eat independently and 

was so happy with finding that device, he turned to his wife and told her they would go

out for dinner; that can make a huge difference. Look at things like that when you work 

with your AT programs. I hope that's kind of what you are looking for. I'm sorry.

ERICA McFADDEN: No, that's great, Melinda. I think sometimes we think about 

sheltering people that are homeless and including people with disabilities and older 

adults. Sometimes we forget there are little things that can help to make sure people 

retain their housing and do not end up back homeless. Basically these ideas and 

resources are very helpful to be able to add to the bag of things we could do to help 

address it. 

I guess I just want to say, we have a few more minutes before we have to start closing. I 

want to give you all a chance to do closing comments. Is there something that you want 

to say that the audience should get before we leave today? Go ahead, John.

JOHN ZICK: I think my closing sentiment is a piggyback on what Melinda was just 

talking about, and it’s utilize your local partners. The question was we are having 

difficulty in our local shelter with accessibility or assistive equipment. Contact your 

Center for Independent Living or your local AT program, and they can provide that level 

of expertise to help you try to problem solve.

I think that would be my biggest takeaway; use the resources we have locally for people 

who are experts in that field. Get them to the table and you never know what kind of

innovative solutions you can come up with. And thank you everyone for attending and 

listening to me rant for an hour. Thanks. 

ERICA McFADDEN: Thank you John. Anybody else have any other closing comments 

they would like to say? 

MELINDA DOLEZAL: Network, network, network. Go to as many committee meetings, 

conferences, councils, fun events, more serious events. You never know who you will 

meet. We have had college students reach out to us because they want to fabricate

toys for children with disabilities; we would love to meet with them. We have had people 

reach out to us because they wanted to help with different events in the community for 

cycling or for recreation and getting outdoors. 
17

Remember their names; keep it in your back pocket in case something comes up. So 

many big things can grow from those partnerships. You really get them by going out and 

in my case being the bubbly boisterous person that is always trying to make those

connections. Just like what John said, he said, get to know your neighbors especially in 

AT programs. We are friendly people, and we love meeting you. Keep us in the back of 

your mind. 

ERICA McFADDEN: Thank you Melinda. Kelsey, I was going to say, give you a chance 

as well. 

KELSEY ADDY: I just wanted to say, if you are not connected to your continuum of 

care as was mentioned, there are 400 nationwide. One of the benefits of being at the 

table is that collaboration. Groups of stakeholders meeting regularly, brainstorming on 

how to best address homelessness, and the second piece I will say is again just 

reinforcing that if you are working with the population and seeing there is not housing 

available for the population, maybe think about stepping into that development sphere.

Just because there is such a lack of housing at all levels, and for all different types of 

populations right now. I am sure that your CoC would probably be supportive as needed 

in order to make that happen. 

ERICA McFADDEN: Thank you Kelsey. Rob, my ACL colleague, did you have final 

thoughts? 

ROB GROENENDAAL: I thought this was excellent, resource and information about

Independent Living Centers, CILs. Get to know your partner and think ahead. Think 

about fall prevention and alerting systems for fire alarms, all the things available out 

there to help sustain living in the home of your choice.

ERICA McFADDEN: Thank you Rob. We saw a whole bunch of questions we were 

unable to get to in the chat. People were asking about those coming out of corrections 

are those who are hoarders.

Think about who's on your team because you're not expected to be experts on 

everything. That is why CoC is there to collaborate. Know that we know we did not give 

you all your answers today, so I will give you some resources to follow up to be able to 

help connect you with more information. 

I just want to say first of all a big thank you to all of our panelists. You all did a great job! 

A lot of information in a short amount of time. We just want to thank you for your 

innovative ideas and programs. And we hope you as the audience learned the 

importance of partnerships and what made them effective and how they work together. I 

think we all heard opportunities we can probably act on in the coming weeks. 

And just before we close, I want to remind you all that in the coming days, we will post 

the recording of this webinar and the slides on the HSRC website. You will be able to
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send it to people who weren’t able to attend or refer back to something; you can access 

it.

In the meantime, keep using the HSRC website, which staff is putting into the chat. It is 

also on the slide, so, you can access it later.

Before you go, remember we only gave you a little bit of information—well, a lot in a 

short amount of time, but we wanted to alert you to another HSRC webinar that is 

coming up on August 7. It will expand on some of the themes we discussed today, so 

we hope you will register for that one as well, so you can get more information. 

If you want to be added to our HSRC email group, if you have not already, just send an 

email to HSRC@ACL.HHS.gov. It is also on the slide to be added to our list. 

On the next slide is our QR code. Let us know how we are doing; take three minutes to 

answer. There are only five questions; it's not too intense. Provide some feedback about 

today's webinar. Staff will also put the link into the chat.

If you have other comments about today, you can provide them as well. Just know that 

we read all of your comments, and we always look for ways to act on your input when 

you are providing information. Next slide.

So, we want to hear from you. The HSRC is your Resource Center. Please feel free to 

email us anytime if you have any technical assistance ideas, trainings, website 

suggestions, success stories, or if you want to share more information about your own 

innovative cross-sector partnerships.

We want to hear from you because that is how we learn, from hearing from our 

community as well.

Finally, we cannot end without thanking Mission Analytics; USAging; Emily Stiles, our 

ASL interpreter and keeping up with us as we talk fast; and Mary our CART specialist, 

thank you also for keeping up with us and all of your roles in producing today's webinar.

We are especially grateful for everyone that joined us today, we appreciate you 

attending. We hope you have a great day or evening wherever you are. Thanks again.