I feel that the city is not doing enough to assist the homeless, and disabled and this is why.
1. I feel the city is failing to meet ADA guide lines at most public places such as not providing enough space for wheel chairs, walkers and cane at most public places, failing to meet ADA requirements for the deaf, hard of hearing or mentally disabled.
2. There are not enough housing resources for the homeless and that is the reasons for so many homeless people with many being severely mentally disabled.
3. Lack of resources for these people. When these people apply for lets say SSDI or SSI they are often denied a few times and put on long wait lists. We have to ask ourselves these questions if we became disabled today and could no longer hold a job how long could we support ourselves on little to no money??? I mean there are very few people who can. SSDI is a program where people pay into the system with their pay checks and this is the way they are often mistreated at the hands of the system. If they are already getting it and lets say they are facing a CDR the agencies often want to send them to a special exam when there is sufficient evidence to continue them. I'm one of them. Last year I was sent to a doctor who was very rough with me. Just to give everyone an idea of what what went on when he asked me to do two certain moves and when I could not do them he proceeded to force both arms upward and put his hands on both shoulders and pushed real hard downward. This is abuse!!! I have disk degeneration of the spine and after he did that to me I went to my doctor and alerted her but after the incident I feel as if I have been getting a little worse as time goes on. This gives an idea of what went on in the past and still goes on in many states. Now let me say I feel changes are on the way at DES for the better but it takes time for change. What I would like to see is better costumer better service, and to see my services continue along with more education so those with disabilities can have better services.