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From: Disabled In Action of Pa.[SMTP:diaofpa(AT)geocities.com]
Sent: Saturday, May 02, 1998 1:17 AM
5-1-98
ADAPT of Philadelphia kicked off May Day by crashing a party held at the
=
historic 30th Street Train Station held for Millard Fuller, National =
Exec. for Habitat for Humanity. 12 activists braved a rainy night to =
join a cocktail party/reception/dinner to honor Fuller for his work with
=
HFH. =20
Philly ADAPT formed a noisy gauntlet that party goers had to walk =
through. Holding signs demanding equality in housing and razzing =
Habitat for Inaccessibility for all those lovely wheelchair accessible =
homes that they never built. =20
Party goers were visibly distressed and engaged in behaviour unbecoming =
to ladies and gentlemen in evening dress. The Amtrak Police tried to =
intervene by threatening arrest. We told them they were more than =
welcome to arrest us. Undaunted, we stayed our lines until Sen. Jack =
Kemp (former HUD Secretary) and Millard Fuller came out to speak with =
us. =20
We issued demands that Habitat for Humanity live up to the Visitability =
standards that were originally attached to the HUD money they so =
willingly accept, put information regarding Visitability on their web =
page and that Fuller try to facilitate a change of attitude in the HFH =
leadership. We also demanded that HFH start to work with us to try to =
meet the housing problems in Philadelphia.
Fuller and Kemp tried to assure us that they were on "our" side and =
being good Christians we could trust them. However, talk is cheap and =
action is worth millions. Local HFH Directors who wouldn't give us the
=
time of day came to fawn over us and promise us meetings. So, we shall =
see. =20
Meanwhile, Fuller couldn't get it through his head that zero step =
entrances are better than steps and ramps and that Visitability is a =
win-win situation. Coming to an impasse, we stayed until the party =
began to break up around 11:00 PM. =20
It is up to folks in Detroit, Michigan to keep the ball rolling. =20
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