October 23, 2001
For more information, contact:
Bob Kafka (512) 431-4085 cell
Marsha Katz (406) 544-9504 cell

100 Arrested When Governor Refuses to Discuss Community Alternatives

(SAN FRANCISCO) 500 ADAPT activists blocked traffic for six hours around the Earl Warren State Office Building while the ADAPT negotiating team tried in vain to get Governor Gray Davis to discuss community based alternatives to rebuilding Laguna Honda, the nation's largest nursing home. The Governor's refusal to discuss alternatives to institutionalization for San Francisco's senior and disabled residents resulted in the arrest of 100 ADAPT protesters who blocked the building's front and rear entrances in addition to the intersections.

"Governor Gray's refusal to negotiate in good faith made us even more committed to hold our ground," said Denise McMullin Powell, ADAPT Organizer from Maine. "We were willing to compromise by not insisting he meet with us himself, if he would authorize the Director of Human Services, or the State Medicaid Director to act on his behalf. The fact that he wouldn't do even that is further evidence of his unwillingness to even consider measures to keep California from forcing its citizens into institutional settings."

ADAPT is demanding that Gov. Davis stop providing funds for the state match portion of Medi-Cal for people now in Laguna Honda, or at risk for admission.

In addition, ADAPT wants the Governor to assure creation of a system where Medi-Cal funds follow and support the person rather than being attached to a specific institutional setting. By choosing to put between $400-$600 million into rebuilding Laguna Honda, the city and state are locking up millions of additional dollars in Medicaid funds that could be used more cost effectively to support people in the community. Tying these funds to Laguna Honda also forces older and disabled people to live there rather than staying in their own homes and receiving their long term care services there.

Twice during the day, as talks were in progress, California Highway Patrol officers, who have jurisdiction in state buildings, manhandled protestors at the front and rear doors of the building. At the back door, people were pulled from their wheelchairs, dragged across cement, and a number of them suffered cuts and abrasions. On the other side of the building, when CHP officers blocked the ramp access to the front door, protesters slid out of their wheelchairs and crawled laboriously up the steps. At the top, officers dragged some across the cement, while they picked up others by the backs of their waistbands and plunked them down back at the base of the steps.

"We were willing to put ourselves in harm's way because we are the lucky ones-we've all managed to escape places like Laguna Honda," said Nadina Laspina, ADAPT Organizer from New York City. "I live and work in the shadow of the World Trade Center, and I came here to San Francisco because as a New Yorker, I witnessed an unspeakable horror that left me feeling violated and powerless. As a person with a disability, I want to put an end to another horror that makes me feel violated-the horror of Laguna Honda and of all nursing homes. For those of us who have managed to survive and escape them, the threat of a nursing home is truly as frightening as the threat of terrorism. There is a better way."

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