SurveyOptimum Environments for Optimum Health & Creativity: Designing and Building a Healthy Home or Office, William J. Rea, M.D., December 2002. Pictures, building illustrations, and environmental research data for anyone who wants to design and build a healthy home, office or creative work space. Contains research data, medical treatment, and building experience conducted by Dr. William J. Rea and his patients over the last 30 years at the medical treatment facility - Environmental Health Center-Dallas, Texas. Includes information and building guidance for: identification of less polluted materials; outdoor air/ location; foundation and basement; exterior, framing, roofing, insulation and electrical wiring; garages, outside storage rooms, and workshops; light and color; thermal comfort; indoor air quality and air pollution; interior construction; heating, cooling and ventilation; water; sauna, physical therapy and massage; and a homebuyers/renters checklist. $39.95 www.ehcd.com/books/home_building_designing.html
Wanted: MCS/ES
Homeless Applicants in AZFollowing are the questions to which answers are urgently needed:
1.) What is your current housing need? (one bedroom? two bedrooms?)
2.) Where do you currently live, and can you describe your living situation? (car camping, stay on friends' or state land, live in RV, on friends' couch, etc.)
3.) When did you first become aware that you have MCS and/or electrical sensitivities?
4.) How do you support yourself? (S.S.I., Workers Comp, retirement benefits?)
5.) Where do you find emotional support? (Friends? Family? prayer? or don't have support?)
6.) How long have you lived in the White Mountains, or in Arizona?
7.) To what do you react in a housing situation? short answer about what you need to avoid like cell phones, perfume, smoke
8.) Do you currently receive medical treatment for MCS and/or electrical sensitivities?
9.) What is your family size? (currently, not originally or previously)
10.) What is one thing you feel is most essential in successfully providing housing for people with MCS / electrical sensitivities? short answer about what you need like hotplate, outdoors, clothesline, etc.
MCS Resources for Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. MCS lodging questionnaire. www.princesstigerlily.com/mcs/index
Please review the notice and, if you have such a story or know someone that does, please e-mail names, addresses (standard and e-mail) and phone numbers along with a short description of stories to: dfleurant@dlcak.org by February 7, 2003. I will forward it along to the folks in DC.
Thanks for your help.
THE HOUSING CRISIS FACING PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES: TELLING THE STORY
Finding affordable, accessible housing is a significant problem for people with all types of disabilities across the country. Over the next few months, the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) Housing Task Force will be creating opportunities to educate government officials, policy makers, opinion leaders, and the general public about this mounting national crisis. For example, the next version of the Priced Out report will be published in March, demonstrating a significant explosion in housing costs as compared to Supplemental Security Income (SSI) monthly income.
We need to "put a face" on this issue by gathering stories of individuals with all types of disabilities from across the country who would be willing to talk to a member of the press (print, broadcast or electronic). We need stories of adults with disabilities who:
1) Receive SSI benefits;
2) Have attempted to find affordable rental housing, and/or affordable and accessible rental housing, and/or or who simply need affordable housing (i.e. they are living with aging parents, paying most of their SSI income for rent, "stuck" in a group or nursing home where they don't want to be; homeless or about to be homeless etc.).
If an individual has sought help from a public housing authority (PHA), a HUD regional office, or a local affordable housing or disability organization and has been told he/she must wait years for housing - such stories are also critical.
Reasons for inability to secure rental housing could range from:
1) The individual was told that Section 8 vouchers were not available
2) The individual was told that all the waiting lists were closed
3) The individual was told the subsidized property was elderly-only and they were not eligible to live there; and/or
4) The property would not accept a Section 8 housing voucher and/or
5) The property was not accessible
This issue of Priced Out will be the third. The first was Priced Out in 1998, the Housing Crisis for People with Disabilities. The second was Priced Out in 2000, the Crisis Continues. This third issue will be released sometime in March 2003 - right in time for the FY 2004 appropriations process. Priced Out is also an extremely useful tool for state and local advocates because each issue contains state-specific and locality-specific data on the housing crisis faced by people with disabilities.
While Priced Out focuses specifically on people who receive SSI and the crisis they face as the poorest of the poor, information about the problems faced by individuals who receive SSDI or VA benefits would also be useful.
3 HUD Funding: Arizona's 2003 Plans for MCS and EMF Housing
The Nature of Things - Up Close and Toxic. Educational television program about toxins in the home. Download a video clip online and explore the Toxic House interactive version on the website. http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/toxic.html
New Horizons Independent Living Center, Inc., AZ. Non-profit, consumer-driven 501(c)(3) organization that advocates and promotes independent living for persons with disabilities. We serve persons with all types of disabilities in Yavapai and Coconino Counties. myweb.cableone.net/nhilc Contact Info: Main Office - Prescott Valley - (928)772-1266, 1-800-406-2377 Flagstaff Branch - (928)214-7102. E-mail: nhilc@cableone.net
CyberCIL of Arizona. The mission of CyberCil of Arizona is to provide innovative, meaningful assistance in accordance with the principles and philosophy of independent living to, and on behalf of, Arizonans with disabilities so that they may attain or continue an independent lifestyle. cybercil.com
MCS Resources for Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. MCS lodging questionnaire. www.princesstigerlily.com/mcs/index
Housing and MCS. www.thegarden.net/mcs/resources.html
Recommended Architectural Features for MCS and ES Multi-Family Housing
Safer Travel for MCS, see Resources
Smoke-free locations all over the world. www.smokefreeworld.com
"My wife Pam and I, executed an eclectic and jagged itinerary which covered a good deal of the eleven western states and the northern 1000 miles of western Mexico. We were searching for the EI Shangri La with its complete year round freedom from the four foul follies of civilization -- WOOD SMOKE, MOLD, PESTICIDES and URBAN POLLUTION. We spent 4 years looking for a place which she could tolerate. The spot that was our final choice was located only 70 miles from where we started our almost 100,000 mile journey."
Continued Search for an MCS/EI Safe Haven
Toxicology Lab. ETI Environmental Lab, 4730 Mountain Road, Suite 21, Pasadena, MD 21122 (410) 437-4100 Fax:(410) 437-5400 Robert Simon, Ph.D. ETIRKS@aol.com USPS Mailing address: ETI Environmental Lab, P. O. Box 2410 Pasadena, MD 21123
