Quality Trust for Individuals with Disabilities said in a statement that a 2008 study found that although recipients could afford apartments anywhere in Virginia if they were allowed to use their grant funds to live in the housing of their choice, they had to live in designated housing.
“Virginia’s sad history of segregating people with disabilities in isolated institutions and group homes – against their will, away from their families and friends – must end,” Quality Trust’s legal director, Jonathan Martinis, said in a statement. “We are pleased and grateful that the Office for Civil Rights will take action.”
The 78-page complaint says the Virginia law that created the program makes special provisions for people who receive benefits and live in assisted living facilities or adult foster care, but that it doesn’t require them to do so in order to receive benefits.
In the complaint, Quality Trust for Individuals with Disabilities asked the Office of Civil Rights to investigate the matter, find that the state is violating the ADA and order Virginia to allow people living in integrated, community-based housing to receive state benefits.
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Messages left with U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Virginia’s Department of Aging and Rehabilitative Services were not immediately returned on Monday.
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Date: August 13, 2013