What We Do > Success Stories
This is a fraction of the recent success achieved by CRIL consumers working in partnership with a CRIL coordinator.
Housing
Miss. M was recovering from recent surgery and was very upset when her son was arrested because of a complaint by a resident of their apartment complex. Both Miss M and her son are persons with disabilities. They maintain their independence by supporting one another. She needs help with physical activities, and he survived a violent attack over 20 years ago as a person with a Traumatic Brain Injury.
Based on his arrest, Miss M was served an eviction notice by the apartment complex management. Miss M felt like she needed assistance in reviewing and submitting paperwork to the courts to prove that her son had some side effects from his medications that impact his behavior, and help in dealing with the eviction notice.
When Miss M contacted CRIL for assistance, I helped her connect with legal services’ agencies that could help with her eviction notice and the legal situation involving her son. I also assisted Miss M in completing the needed legal paperwork and ensuring that it was faxed and received by the courts within a strict deadline so that we could advocate for her legal housing rights.
The end result of our working together was the charges against her son were dropped and with the help of the Fair Housing Commission, her eviction notice was cancelled.
Personal Assistant Coordination
I received a call from a very distraught lady, and I agreed to come to her home to meet her and her husband. When I went, I met two strongly independent people, under 50, who both had multiple, significant disabilities. The wife had been acting as the husband’s personal assistant until recently when her own health deteriorated. His children wanted him to go live in an institution where they could feel confident about his safety. The couple wanted to stay in their own home, together.
Recent interactions with the paramedics had created a case with Adult Protective Services. I was able to use that as an opening to convince a supervisor at the Department of Adult and Aging Services of the severity of this couples’ need. The wife and I had several coaching sessions where we practiced how she could self-advocate with “the system.” Because of the way she presented the severity of her husband’s disabilities, he was pre-approved for hours of care.
The wife advised me that a neighbor had started helping with her husband’s care in early June. My knowledge of In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) and how workers are paid helped us negotiate for retroactive payments back to when the neighbor started helping. I completed the enrollment paperwork for the neighbor to become a registered worker. I had the supervisor’s fax number and was able to accelerate the process.
This to me is very gratifying that I have made an impact in helping this couple. The wife was crying yesterday as she thanked me for my understanding and help. She stated she doesn’t feel so alone anymore.
Benefits Advocacy and Employment
I worked with someone who was in the process of applying for Social Security Disability Insurance. His state disability was almost finished and he was concerned that SSDI would not be approved in time and he would be without any money for rent and food. I encouraged him to follow-up with Social Security and discussed retraining in a different line of work so that he could work part time to supplement his SSDI income. I introduced him to the Department of Rehabilitation to explore his employment options while receiving SSDI. Within two months, he had received notice from Social Security that he had been approved and would receive retroactive benefits. At the same time, he was being evaluated by the Department of Rehabilitation for employment opportunities and he had visited the Food Pantry we talked about to stretch his SSDI dollars. He said “it feels really neat” to have met his goals.