Issue Position: Supporting People with Disabilities through Intersectional Policy Reform

Issue Position

Our district has an incredible history of leading the state and country on disabilities rights. Yet today, we still see glaring inequalities, inaccessibility, and under-representation for the 22% of Californians --about 3.8 million people-- with some type of intellectual, emotional, or physical disability. It's time for our district and our state to do more to lead again on ensuring that people with disabilities can live their daily lives fully and access the public rights and services that we promise to all Californians. And we all know moving the needle on disabilities rights doesn't just help people with disabilities-- a more accessible society helps us all. We must consider disability needs and priorities in every policy area we discuss and in every equity issue we tackle, from housing and homelessness to workforce training and wage equity. I would fight to bring disability rights leaders to the table on all issues, ensure quality education for our students with special education needs, improve our developmental disabilities services funding structure, and reform our mental health services and funding approach.

Our district has an incredible history of leading the state and country on disabilities rights. In Berkeley in the 1970s, disability rights advocates saw the inaccessibility and inequity around them, and took matters into their own hands. These advocates created their own ramps on sidewalk curbs to ensure increased mobility, setting the tone for disability advocacy across the nation. Our district is also home to Ed Roberts, who was an international leader in the independent living and disability rights movement, and who was involved in founding the UC's Physically Disabled Students Program that became the model for over 400 independent living centers nationwide. And even before the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed, California passed the Lanterman Act, which declared that people with developmental disabilities and their families have a right to services and supports they need to live full and independent lives in their communities.
Yet today, we still see glaring inequalities, inaccessibility, and under-representation for the 22% of Californians --about 3.8 million people-- with some type of intellectual, emotional, or physical disability. The majority of these people are above the age of 65, and are disproportionately represented in black and Native American communities. They are much more likely than their peers to experience health problems such as heart disease or obesity. Right here in Alameda County, one in five people with disabilities lives in poverty, one in four does not have a high school degree, and three in five are left out of our workforce. And as the baby boomer generation ages, we're seeing a skyrocketing need for strong accessibility supports and services.
It's time for our district and our state to do more to lead again on ensuring that people with disabilities can live their daily lives fully and access the public rights and services that we promise to all Californians. And we all know moving the needle on disabilities rights doesn't just help people with disabilities-- a more accessible society helps us all. We must consider disability needs and priorities in every policy area we discuss and in every equity issue we tackle, from housing and homelessness to workforce training and wage equity.
Here's what I'll fight for as your next Assemblymember:
Bringing disability rights leaders to the table on all issues:
Disability issues aren't isolated -- policies around accessibility for people with disabilities must play a part when we discuss housing and homelessness, education, the workforce, transportation and more. We have to make sure that when we bring together community leaders, advocates, and experts to solve our community problems, we include advocates and leaders from the disability rights movements at the table. And across the board, we need to dedicate more funding to meet the needs of this community. A few examples of such issues include:
Housing:
Tackling the housing crisis here in Assembly District 15 and across the state of California is my top priority-- and it's critical that we do so with an eye to what people with disabilities need. 41% of the housing discrimination complaints made publicly last year were about having a disability, and more than one-third of the nation's chronically homeless--people with disabilities experiencing long-term homelessness--live in California. The fact is that a $900/month Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payment, which many people with disabilities must live on, simply does not cover the median cost of affordable rent prices in the East Bay. We have to bring disability rights leaders to the table to ensure that we are increasing rental subsidies, building new affordable homes, and including accessibility features in new housing. We need to extend anti-gouging rent protections and new legal protections to tenants facing unfair evictions. And as a state, we need to re-invest in wraparound service programs such as In-Home Support Services (IHSS) that enable people with mental, emotional, and physical disabilities to live and thrive independently in their own homes.
Workforce:
In our workforce development plans, we must make sure we have vocational programs and higher education opportunities that are fully accessible to people with disabilities and those who work in disability care services. And as we tackle the problem of our unaffordable cost of housing across the state, we must push for minimum wage increases to make California liveable for all. This is especially important for people with disabilities who work low-wage jobs. Waiver exemptions in the Fair Labor Act, which were originally intended to help people with disabilities find work, create loopholes for employers to exploit their workers with disabilities and pay them less than minimum wage. California needs to join New Hampshire, Maryland, and Alaska in banning this atrocious practice. Finally, we must professionalize the care industry and better fund care workers, so this industry is a competitive career option, and so service providers can fully staff needed supports and services in our communities.
Health Care:
National research has found that the ACA has given people with disabilities more affordable health insurance options and better access to long-term, supportive services. But people with disabilities are already at higher risk for serious health problems, and too many still go without the mental and physical health services they need. The Affordable Care Act also remains under attack by the Trump Administration, and with that, protections for people with disabilities are under attack. It is critical that we push for a single-payer system as soon as possible to protect all people's right to health care, and in the short and medium-term, we must create a Medi-Cal public option and pass a state individual mandate so that people with disabilities in California have access to stable, complete, and sufficient care.
Transportation:
As our transportation networks evolve, people with disabilities need to be able to access our trains, buses, and cars. I would fight to significantly modernize our BART stations and system to make new transit-oriented housing possible, and plan new improvements with accessibility features in mind. We should bolster our paratransit services, and as our ride service industry shifts and taxis are increasingly replaced by Ubers and Lyfts, we must make sure people with disabilities are not left out.
Quality Education For Students with Special Education Needs:
Our "kids-first" agenda is incomplete if we don't provide a comprehensive curriculum and strong services for children with special education needs. Students with disabilities have the legal right to a quality education on par with their peers, and it's up to us to make sure they are accessing that right. It is critical that we bring more resources to our state's Special Education programs and that we ensure that Individualized Education Plans (IEP) are implemented and built in collaboration with students' families, so that students with unique learning needs have access to the tools they need to be successful in school. I urge Governor Brown to sign SB354 which requires all IEPs to be fully translated into a family's native language.
We should also lead the way in fostering and funding more Family Empowerment Centers, which help parents of students with disabilities to navigate the Special Education process and curriculum. Currently, only 13 CA counties have a Family Empowerment Center. We should pass AB2704, which would bring new Centers to counties statewide (including Alameda County), standardize data, and prioritize work in areas that do not currently have Centers.
We also need to increase collaboration between our schools and county services to make sure schools and teachers get the special education funding and professional development that they need to serve their students. And we must hold our schools--in particular, our charter schools-- better accountable to district standards for special education regulations and systems. We hear too many stories from across California and the country about charter schools that cherry-pick their students -- purposefully turning down students that they say they cannot serve. Instead, we must create and enforce systems that ensure existing charter schools accept all students. We must also ensure that all schools have the curriculum and support systems in place to ensure success for students with mental, emotional, and physical disabilities. That means increasing our investment in our schools--see my education plan for more.
An Improved Funding Structure for Developmental Disabilities Services:
People with developmental disabilities have lifelong intellectual or physical disabilities that occur before age 18 and affect 3 or more areas of major life activities--this includes people with cerebral palsy, autism, and epilepsy.
Thanks to the Lanterman Act, 21 Regional Centers across California fund various service providers that support people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, so they can live independent lives in integrated communities. These providers range from job coaches to full supported living service providers, who enable their clients to live full lives in their communities, instead of being segregated from society in state institutions.
Currently, over 300,000 people across California receive supports and services through these centers. But service rates have not kept up with the cost of inflation, and reimbursement rates from the regional centers to service providers do not reflect the true cost of service. Now more than ever, we need to pass statewide legislation that clarifies and increases regional center reimbursement rates to community-based service providers and makes sure sufficient funding follows each person, so that they can get the critical services they need to live full and independent lives in their communities.
Each year, service providers-- feeling fiscal crunch and concern -- are having to discontinue vital services or find themselves unable to pay their workers enough to fill badly needed staffing positions. These service providers have talented staff and the ability to provide individualized care to people with disabilities, but they simply lack the resources needed to make this actually happen. It's time for California to lead the way in providing exemplary care to all people with disabilities, regardless of circumstance.
Mental Health Services and Funding Reform:
Part of truly serving our residents with disabilities means expanding mental health services to make them accessible to anyone, regardless of race, socioeconomic status, or circumstance. As we do this, we must prioritize underserved communities and those who have historically lacked access to quality mental health care.
We also must do a better job of taking a public health approach to mental health services and end the trend of incarceration for people with mental health needs. A person dealing with severe mental illness in California is currently four times more likely to be in prison than in a state mental health care facility. We need to expand the use of behavioral health alternatives to incarceration for non-violent offenders that are struggling with these issues. And we should increase state support for our safety net providers to help hospitals and community clinics better integrate their mental and physical care services, and make these services more robust.
All this new policy means we need new funding streams. One way to provide more revenue is to close the Proposition 13 commercial property loophole and require big corporations like Chevron, Transamerica, and Disney to pay their market-rate fair share of property tax. We will also need to consider taxes on our wealthiest residents to bring critical funding and new resources to neighbors and friends with mental, emotional, and physical disabilities.
I believe in an East Bay and a California that is accessible and built for all people, despite disability or need. If elected, I will fight to make sure that all Californians have access to stable, quality support and services that will allow them to thrive in schools, in the workforce, and throughout our communities.

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