Oakland Settlement Includes People With Disabilities In Disaster Planning

News from the City of Oak­land and the CDR Member’s Exchange

OAKLAND, Calif. – In a set­tle­ment announced Jan­u­ary 21, 2010, by Dis­abil­ity Rights Advo­cates (DRA) and the City of Oak­land, Oak­land has agreed to adopt an emer­gency plan which incor­po­rates the needs of peo­ple with all types of disabilities.

His­tory and Need

The suit was filed in 2007 against the City of Oak­land to rem­edy the lack of con­sid­er­a­tion of peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties in its emer­gency prepa­ra­tion plan.  Plain­tiffs – the Cal­i­for­nia Foun­da­tion for Inde­pen­dent Liv­ing Cen­ters (“CFILC”), Cal­i­for­ni­ans for Dis­abil­ity Rights, Inc. (“CDR”), and Mar­ian Gray (an Oak­land tax­payer) were rep­re­sented by Dis­abil­ity Rights Advo­cates (DRA), a non-profit law cen­ter that spe­cial­izes in civil rights cases on behalf of per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties in Berke­ley, California.

Bird’s eye view of Oak­land free­way which col­lapsed dur­ing 1989 Loma Pri­eta earthquake.

After the law­suit was filed, Oak­land imme­di­ately began to work with DRA in coöper­a­tive nego­ti­a­tions. The City then hired a con­sul­tant to eval­u­ate its exist­ing plans and to rec­om­mend improve­ments that would make the City more respon­sive to its dis­abled and elderly res­i­dents. These rec­om­men­da­tions became the foun­da­tion of the new plan, known as the Func­tional Needs Annex for Mass Care and Shelter.

The recent anniver­sary of the Loma Pri­eta earth­quake was a reminder to Oak­land res­i­dents of Oakland’s sus­cep­ti­bil­ity to a dis­as­ter. Since 1983, the City of Oak­land has expe­ri­enced eight Presidential-declared dis­as­ters, includ­ing the 1989 Loma Pri­eta earth­quake, 1991 Oak­land Hills Firestorm, the 1997 El Niño win­ter storms, and the 1998 La Niña win­ter storms.

Dur­ing many of these dis­as­ters, the homes of Oak­land res­i­dents were destroyed, requir­ing mass evac­u­a­tions and the pro­vi­sion of emer­gency shel­ter ser­vices. Oakland’s record of dis­as­ters com­pounded by its pro­por­tion of peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties — esti­mated at 15–20% of the City’s pop­u­la­tion — high­light the sever­ity of this issue and the impor­tance of its awaited settlement.

Set­tle­ment high­lights of the Func­tional Needs Annex include:

• Oak­land has iden­ti­fied 20 acces­si­ble emer­gency shel­ters that will accom­mo­date peo­ple with mobil­ity dis­abil­i­ties and is work­ing with other enti­ties to iden­tify addi­tional acces­si­ble shel­ter locations.
• Each emer­gency shel­ter will have a des­ig­nated Shel­ter Func­tional Needs Coör­di­na­tor respon­si­ble for assist­ing per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties. The coör­di­na­tor will iden­tify and request durable med­ical equip­ment, con­sum­able med­ical sup­plies and rea­son­able accommodations.
• The City’s emer­gency noti­fi­ca­tion sys­tem, which con­tacts peo­ple to alert them of an emer­gency sit­u­a­tion in their area, will inter­face with var­i­ous elec­tronic and wire­less devices used by peo­ple with hear­ing, mobil­ity and vision dis­abil­i­ties in addi­tion to stan­dard tele­phones. Spe­cific infor­ma­tion dur­ing times of emer­gency, includ­ing loca­tions of open shel­ters and infor­ma­tion on which of those shel­ters are acces­si­ble to peo­ple with mobil­ity impair­ments, will be avail­able through Eden Infor­ma­tion and Refer­ral Ser­vices. Peo­ple can access this infor­ma­tion by call­ing 2–1-1 on a voice tele­phone or TTY machine, a com­mu­ni­ca­tions device used by peo­ple who are deaf or hard of hearing.
• A Geo­graphic Infor­ma­tion Sys­tem (GIS) has been cre­ated to assist City first respon­ders with iden­ti­fy­ing the loca­tion of per­sons who may require acces­si­ble trans­porta­tion ser­vices. The GIS has mapped the home addresses of indi­vid­u­als who have vol­un­tar­ily reg­is­tered for the City’s 9–1-1 Reg­istry Pro­gram, res­i­den­tial care facil­i­ties for the elderly and nurs­ing homes, and Oak­land Hous­ing Author­ity pub­lic hous­ing facil­i­ties. The City con­tin­ues to work with local orga­ni­za­tions for peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties and older adults to encour­age their clien­tele to par­tic­i­pate in the 9–1-1 Reg­istry Program.

Com­ments

“We would like to com­mend the City of Oak­land for its model emer­gency plan. We believe the Oak­land set­tle­ment can act as a roadmap for munic­i­pal­i­ties across Cal­i­for­nia to ensure the safety of all res­i­dents, includ­ing those with dis­abil­i­ties,” said Sid Wolin­sky of Dis­abil­ity Rights Advo­cates, an attor­ney rep­re­sent­ing the plaintiffs.

Oak­land Mayor Ron Dellums

“This set­tle­ment is a vic­tory for all Oak­lan­ders – res­i­dents and the dis­abil­ity com­mu­nity who have a right to equal access to mass care and shel­ter pro­grams,” said Oak­land Mayor Ron Del­lums. “It would be inde­fen­si­ble to delay improv­ing dis­abil­ity access to our emer­gency ser­vices pro­grams. Instead of debat­ing this through the legal process, cost­ing hun­dreds of thou­sands of tax­payer dol­lars, we are tak­ing imme­di­ate action to adopt cut­ting edge dis­as­ter readi­ness ini­tia­tives for peo­ple with disabilities.”

Judith Smith, an Oak­land res­i­dent who is a wheel­chair user, expressed her sat­is­fac­tion with the set­tle­ment. “Prior to the set­tle­ment, I feared that I would be stranded in my home dur­ing a dis­as­ter or turned away from a shel­ter because of my wheel­chair. As a result of col­lab­o­ra­tive efforts between DRA and Oak­land, I am relieved that an emer­gency plan exists for peo­ple with disabilities.”

“With this plan Oak­land is com­mit­ting to address the needs of peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties at every stage of emer­gency response, from com­mu­ni­cat­ing infor­ma­tion about the dis­as­ter to evac­u­at­ing res­i­dents to pro­vid­ing shel­ter to prepar­ing for long-term recov­ery,” said Karla Gilbride of Dis­abil­ity Rights Advo­cates, an attor­ney rep­re­sent­ing the plain­tiffs. “This sort of com­pre­hen­sive approach is the best way to ensure that peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties aren’t left behind the way they were after Hur­ri­cane Katrina.”

Future Steps

Under the terms of the set­tle­ment, which was approved by the Oak­land City Coun­cil, the new plan will be peri­od­i­cally updated and Dis­abil­ity Rights Advo­cates (DRA) will mon­i­tor Oakland’s progress in imple­ment­ing the plan over the next four and a half years.

To read the set­tle­ment agree­ment, visit: www​.drale​gal​.org.

Addi­tional Infor­ma­tion Con­tacts
Karla Gilbride, Dis­abil­ity Rights Advo­cates, (510) 665‑8644
Sid Wolin­sky, Dis­abil­ity Rights Advo­cates, (510) 665‑8644
Karen Boyd, Oak­land Pub­lic Infor­ma­tion Offi­cer, (510) 238‑6365

CALIFORNIANS FOR DISABILITY RIGHTS, INC.
To Improve the Qual­ity of Life for All Per­sons with any Dis­abil­ity Through Edu­ca­tion and Train­ing By Work­ing to Remove Bar­ri­ers Through Advo­cacy and Change in Pub­lic Policy

Visit the CDR Web at: http://​www​.dis​abil​i​tyrights​-cdr​.org
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