close
Welcome! Wikis are websites that everyone can build together. It's easy!

The Steps Came Tumbling Down - ADAPT's Battle With The HBA

Thursday, March 2nd, 2000, as the Home Builders Association was

having their Home Solutions 2000 Expo at Denver’s Currigan Hall, ADAPT

held its own Home Solutions Expo out front on its first of four days of

protest against the Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Denver.

ADAPT had tried to work with the HBA for about a year trying to get them

to comply with the Fair Housing law and build homes with access.

Meetings, letters and committee work were to no avail. It is apparent that

the HBA does not want their members building homes with access. The HBA

actually wants the Fair Housing Law repealed! They feel that access

should be provided on an as-needed basis, and feel that single-family

detached homes, town homes, and condos should continue to be exempted from

accessibility requirements. Something had to be done.

That is why about 80 ADAPT members from Colorado and Kansas were

at Currigan Hall on that cold Thursday evening, sending the HBA a strong

message. We had great exhibits of our own to show. There was an

accessible Barbie dollhouse, complete with an elevator. We had two doorways:

one accessible, and the other inaccessible, which we went through to

demonstrate the usefulness of one, and uselessness of the other. There

were pictures of the buildings that Atlantis Community had bought and
remodeled for access, as well as educational materials on accessibility. We
even had petitions and flyers with ADAPT’s demands--30% of all new
homes to be accessible, 30% of all new homes to be visitable, meaning a
no-step entrance and an accessible bath on the first floor, and clear
enforcement mechanisms in Colorado’s Fair Housing Law. We marched,
sang, and chanted and several ADAPT members spoke of the need for
accessible homes and told stories of being forced to buy inaccessible homes, or
even to move out of state due to the lack of accessible housing. The
cops came around trying to get us to leave, but there wasn’t much they
could do since we were on the sidewalk for the most part.
Friday, we were back with more awesome ADAPT stuff, including some
gorgeous Styrofoam steps that Pat King, our wheelchair repair guy had
made. After Dawn Russell’s rousing speech, everyone had a chance to
tear down the steps with a wooden mallet. Afterwards, we formed a
gauntlet in front of the steps to the front doors and passed out flyers. Later
we made a human chain chanting “The People United Will Never Be
Defeated”.
On Saturday, back again, we saw that the cops had put up
barricades, which we quickly removed and got down to the business of letting the
HBA know that they weren’t going to ‘turn us around’. Joe Ehman,
an ADAPT member who is on the AIA committee, did a cool mock up of
Roger Reinhardt, the HBA vice-president who had insulted ADAPT in a meeting
a few weeks earlier by calling us simple-minded. Several of us gave
interviews with the press, some of us paid to get inside the exhibit to
speak with the various builders and contractors about access and pass out
a couple of flyers, if we could. Only one small exhibit out of hundreds
had anything remotely to do with access. This time, the cops sent out a
trained negotiator, Sgt. Daniel O'Shea, to tell us the police wanted
ADAPT to stay in this ‘area’ that they had designated by the
barricades. We told him that if he brought Roger Reinhardt out to speak to us,
that we would leave. A few minutes later, he brought Roger out, but he
had nothing to offer us but the same tired old discriminatory solutions
that ADAPT would not accept. We kept our word, though, and left with a
warning from the police that if we came back tomorrow, and did not stay
within the barricades, that we would be arrested. Little did they
know...
On Sunday, we swept in, meaning nothing but business. We quickly sped
up the ramps and began blocking and handcuffing ourselves to doors. The
cops were there, but not quick enough to stop us. They began yelling
out warnings, and soon, the arrests began. When the dust cleared, 17
ADAPT members were arrested and charged with blocking, and refusing to obey
a lawful order.
The Home Builders Association's Tour of Homes was another target
of protests in July. After ignoring ADAPT’s call for an accessible
house in the Tour of Homes, for which the home builders built a series of
NEW homes, this showcase became an action packed showcase. Crawling
into homes, picketing outside and eventually committing civil
disobedience, Colorado ADAPT members sent the Home Builders Association a message
that access can no longer be blown off. Challenging the Home Builders
Association to stop ignoring access to housing for people with
disabilities, ADAPT continues our drive to end the excuses


Latest page update: made by creamcandycane , Oct 13 2006, 10:19 AM EDT (about this update About This Update creamcandycane Edited by creamcandycane


view changes
- complete history)
Keyword tags: By: ANITA Cameron (edit keyword tags)
More Info: links to this page

Threads


There are no threads for this page. Be the first to start a new thread.

Anonymous  (Get credit for your thread)