TESTIMONY BY CAROL
A. GRIGSBY BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON FACILITIES AND FAMILY SERVICES ON THE DEPARTMENT ON
DISABILITY SERVICES, FEB 16, 2023
Madame Chair and other councilmembers, thank you for
allowing me to appear today before the newly formed Committee on Facilities and
Family Services. The DC community of
disability advocates has had a fruitful relationship with the Committee on
Human Services in recent years, and we look forward to the same constructive
relationship with this committee.
My name is Carol Grigsby. My son has received long-term
disability supports through DDS since 2014, and in that same year I began my
blog, DDinWDC (https://www.DDinWDC.com), in which I continue to cover key
issues affecting people with developmental disabilities and their
families. I rotated off DC’s
federally-mandated Developmental Disabilities Council in December, but during
my tenure as DDC chair and then as advocacy co-chair, I was proud, with other
advocates, to achieve successful passage of the historic Developmental
Disability Eligibility Reform Amendment Act, among other important initiatives. You are hearing today from other advocates
who are tracking implementation of The DDERAA, whose intent is to ensure
essential services for all those who need them.
In my limited time, I will focus on three pressing issues that directly
affect the welfare of my own son and others now receiving or about to receive
long-term supports from DDS’s Developmental Disabilities Administration:
-
The effects of the pandemic, coupled with the
narrowing of the gap between DC’s minimum wage and living wage, have led to
significant staffing shortages – 23% on average - among DC’s disability support
providers. Direct support professionals
who remain on the job are drastically overburdened. Please heed today’s testimony by Ian Paregol
from the Coalition of Disability Service Providers with respect to the need for
urgent and full implementation of the Direct Support Professional Payment Rate
Act
As the pandemic emergency winds down, DDS and
providers are focused on reopening day programs to get people back out into the
community. However, this moment also
provides an opportunity for DC as a whole to place enhanced emphasis on employment
of people with disabilities with the workplace supports they need. The DC government needs to start by setting
an example for private businesses, by becoming a model employer of disabled
people in its own hiring practices. Not
only DCHR, but also DCPL, should be dedicated to this goal.
- People receiving residential supports from DDS
have received a flat $100 monthly personal needs allowance since 2007 – with no
cost-of-living allowance, or COLA. A
decision last month provides for a COLA to be applied to the personal needs
allowance for people in intermediate care facilities and nursing homes, but in
order to apply a COLA for people in supported living, such as my son, or in
community residences, there must be explicit action as part of the budget
process. Year-on-year erosion in
people’s personal allowance must not be allowed to continue, and we look to you
to help remedy this injustice.
I would not be in a position to advocate as I do if my son
were not receiving DDS supports, and I would like to thank Andy Reese, Winslow
Woodland, my son’s service coordinator and others in DDS for continuing to
pursue improvements in quality control, DDA/RSA collaboration, and other
initiatives to achieve more meaningful inclusion of disabled people in our DC
community. Thank you.
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