Schwarzenegger halts evictions of disabled residents
September 18th, 2009
From the Los Angeles Times, Pasadena Star News, KABC:
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced today that a group of disabled renters who had received eviction notices would not be losing their homes. “Your eviction notice is being terminated,” he said.
Residents of the Regency Court Apartments in Monrovia had been told that everyone under age 62 should not have been allowed to move in and would have to leave.
Schwarzenegger said he was inspired to act after reading about the dispute in the Los Angeles Times, remembering the activism of his mother-in-law, the late Eunice Kennedy Shriver.
Some disability activists complained that Schwarzenegger’s announcement didn’t change the state’s plan to dramatically cut services for 140,000 senior citizens and people with disabilities.
“If the Governor is truly listening to the voice of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, he’ll stop attacking seniors and people with disabilities and do whatever is necessary to reverse the drastic and dangerous cuts he’s made to the State’s home care program,” said Hugh Hallenberg, long time disability advocate. “If he doesn’t, it’s obvious that this was nothing more than a press stunt.”
(Photo of Lily Hixon with Arnold Schwarzenegger by Ken Hixon, from the Pasadena Star-News)
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September 20th, 2009 at 1:09 am
I, too, am extremely displeased over all the budget cuts to the disabled but — with all due respect to Mr. Hallenberg — for the 20 disabled residents of Regency Court apartments who now get to stay in their homes this was a whole lot more than just a “a press stunt.” My daughter, Lily, who has Down Syndrome, is one of the residents who gets to keep her independence.
Mr. Hallenberg’s anger towards Governor Schwarzenegger is so great that he implies that stopping these evictions was trivial or insincere. Mr. Hallenberg has obviously never been threatened with eviction.