 Major sponsors for Ableton on Air include Green Mountain Support Services, empowering people with disabilities to live home in the community, Washington County Mental Health, where hope and support come together. Media sponsors for Ableton on Air include Park Chester Times, Muslim Community Report, WWW, this is the Bronx.info, Associated Press Media Editors, New York Powered Online Newspaper, U.S. Press Corps Domestic and International, Anchor FM and Spotify. Partners for Ableton on Air include the HOD of New York and New England, where everyone belongs, the Orthodox Union, the Division for the Blind and Visually Impaired of Vermont, the Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Center Vermont Habitat for Humanity, and Montpelier Sustainable Coalition, Montefiore Medical Center of the Bronx, Roosevelt Kennedy Center of Bronx, New York, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of the Bronx. Ableton on Air has been seen in the following publications, Park Chester Times, WWW, this is the Bronx.com, New York Powered Online Newspaper, Muslim Community Report, WWW.H.com, and the Montpelier Bridge. Ableton on Air is part of the following organizations, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Boston, New England Chapter, and the Society of Professional Journalists. Welcome to this edition of Ableton on Air, the one and only program that focuses on the needs, concerns, and achievements of the differently able. I've always been your host, Lauren Seiler. I'm Lauren Seiler. And before we get to our topic today, Happy New Year to everybody in Vermont and beyond. But before we get to our topic today, we would like to say a special thanks to our sponsors, Green Mountain Support Services, Washington County Mental Health, and many, many, many others, including the partnerships of Einstein Hospital of the Bronx, the Kennedy Center of the Bronx, and Montefiore Medical Center of the Bronx, and many other partners and sponsors. We would like to welcome Daniel Poro, mental health advocate of the Bronx to discuss many things, including housing and people with special needs. Welcome, Danny, to Ableton on Air. How are you? Larry, thank you so much for having me on. Happy New Year to you, your family, and all your guests. This has been an incredible ride to make it to 2022. And again, thank you for having me on. These are challenging times. Okay, so explain a little bit on what you do in the mental health community as an advocate, and then we'll go from there. As a mental health advocate, I bring awareness to the elected officials, the community leaders, the need of doing more to their constituents. I have been a mental health advocate pretty much all my life, having getting treatment when I was a teenager in special ed classes from the early 70s. Back then I was heavily medicated while I was in school, but I used to run the Bronx Mental Health Council, which has no longer been active for the past 10 years. In the state of New York, every county is supposed to have a mental health council that to be active. And over the years, they just couldn't keep it going. So there lies a problem in communicating with community leaders, elected officials, directors of mental health programs, the state office of mental health, and at the city level, it's called New York City Mental Health, the High Unit Mental Health. So all those people used to come together at the committee level county-wise. I have seen over the years, in these past two years with COVID, how so many people are now suffering more than ever before. This is on the mental health community side. I know for a fact that my advocacy still is very difficult because it's hard to help them when these mental health programs are not functioning during this time of the year with COVID. A lot of the staff are working from their homes, they're answering phones, a lot of them are just burnt out because they can't keep up anymore and they fall in sick through a variety of contacts of people. In my community, I also sit on the board of Bronx Community Board 9. I am the chair of the social service committee, which I'm proud of, but it's the hardest thing to do during this time of the year because of services. Sorry for interrupting. Why is it so hard? Because as we know during COVID, when COVID first began, a lot of things were closed and people with special needs were stopped. So if services are closed, in your instance in the Bronx, why is it hard to be on such a committee? It's trying to get the speakers from the prospective city, government, agencies, nonprofit organizations to come and do a Zoom meeting. It's difficult enough due to scheduling and due to audio. It's a problem that's not just rendered to the Bronx. I would say it's rendered across the city. But my problem is that the community is not engaged in these meetings because this information, which is public information, is not visible anywhere in the community for them to chime in. There's also the fact that people may not have access to the internet or not internet savvy. Okay. I'm going to let my wife, Arlene, did you want to ask? Go ahead, you can start asking questions. Danny, what's the toughest challenge you ever faced as an advocate? Yeah, what is the toughest challenge you faced now that we're getting into the meet because we're going to talk about housing, but what's the toughest thing you faced as an advocate? The toughest challenges that I have faced as an advocate is communicating directly to the elected official the need to be more aware and more spoken out on mental health issues. Roughly four years ago, a dear friend of mine got shot and killed by a police officer because she was having a mental health episode at home when her neighbors call 911. And it's happened with her before. So the police department technically came, but they weren't properly trained to deal with a person who was having an episode. So here is a lady who's in her 60s who's having mental health issues, who's shouting according to them, probably running around the house with no clothes on. And they went into her apartment and they shot her. That should have been handled more carefully with more training. That did not bring any awareness to the local elected officials to this day they haven't done a mental health meeting of the community. Those are challenges. Then New York should take Vermont's example. What Vermont does, Vermont has, especially Montpelier, Vermont, there's a thing with the police department here, Montpelier Police is called Team 2. So Washington County Mental Health and Montpelier, so a social worker who is trained goes with a police officer to handle such a thing. A crisis. A crisis interventionalist is called. So yes, certain states are doing it and certain states are not doing it because they're not trained enough to do it. That is the issue there. It's a constant training that EMS needs to be, they go through this every single day EMS with people who are homeless in the streets. The other thing is the other people that come in is the police department who handle these calls on a daily basis. So if you're handling these calls through 911 system, you have several emergency entities that need to step up to the plate and understand that what they have been doing hasn't been enough. You don't kill someone knowing that they have history of mental health and these are repeated offenders in their system. You know, you just, you know, okay, so someone picks up a stick a knife or something like that. There has to be a way of talking to someone who's having an episode. Now getting to the issue of housing, which is an issue such as not being able to get adequate housing or having housing and then the housing developments have so many open tickets such as the New York City Housing Authority explain your situation. It doesn't have to be completely in detail. You can leave out whatever you want to leave out because of privacy. But anything you want to talk about housing, the floor is yours and what we can do as a people to help or fix the problem. Go ahead. So housing is a serious problem in our country. Here in New York City, we have what they call a lottery housing, which is technically just a list to get approved for homes or buildings once they go up. You get on the list, but it's really a joke. You really don't, we don't need a lottery housing list. And then after that, you have to apply for these new buildings that when they make their presentation to the community boards, they say it's affordable, it's affordable to people making middle-class salaries. $55,000 is what they ask when you fill out the application. I don't qualify. I am in the poverty level. And when they say it's affordable, it's not affordable to me. It's actually, it's actually not affordable to a lot of people that live or government, you know, and that's government, government such as food stamps in New York City. People either make, you know, live, you know, people who are poor get funding from HRA, human resources, Medicaid, food stamps. They get those services. I actually live or social security benefit. My income is a poverty income that's funded by the federal government. They keep me in a poverty state of condition, knowing that with the income that they give me monthly and annually, I don't qualify for the affordable housing. And there's no other program in the middle that will help me get into that apartment. I don't qualify for a housing voucher. For people who don't know, I apologize. What is a housing voucher? Housing voucher is another government program that will help. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Is that Section 8? It's Section 8. It's a housing voucher. But there's clause in there. Like I said, I'm in a poverty condition. I mean, I make $35,000 a year with my social security benefits. Now they say I make too much money from social security. I'm not entitled to a voucher. I'm not entitled to food stamps. And that's the only program that we receive in our home is WIC. And WIC is basically a program that is nutrition for my son, who is four years old. So WIC is another program. What is that? That's for like baby food and... Well, it's a set of nutritional food based on his age. Based on his age. When he was a toddler, we were able to get formula. We were able to get cereal. We were able to get certain food that WIC covers. As he got older, you know, it changed. We're able to get, you know, a dozen of eggs once a month. A couple of containers of milk, juice, 36 ounces of cereal. Wheat. And, you know, there's a lot of wheat to go around. And my son is one of those children that he says, you know, too much is too much, you know, wheat, you know, bread, pasta, all of that. It's good, but that's what the government is forcing us. Cheese. We need to have more fruits and vegetables. We need to eat healthier. It helps because financially it helps my pocket. But housing is a serious problem in New York City. There's a shortage of housing. There are more people now in family shelters, in city shelters, in shelters for men and women, domestic violence shelters. You have people in the streets more than ever before, not just in New York, but across the country. This is happening while our elected officials are getting these complaints from their constituents on a monthly basis. And they have not done anything, anything to address this problem. This is a mammoth issue that's ongoing for a long time. All right, so to piggyback on that, go ahead. Did you want to ask a question, Arlene? Yes. I'm a community person. Go ahead. Go ahead. Housing. Check your time. The housing. That's when you're pressing to get into a house, to any housing. Yeah. How difficult do they really make it for people with disabilities to get housing? Well, for people with disabilities, when you file for an apartment. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Try not to make so much noise. Okay. Go ahead. When you file for an apartment, you know, it may say in the application, if the person is disabled, then that would mean that they would have to either, obviously make accommodations or have apartments that are considered here in New York, 504. And 504 is? 504 is the code for apartments for people with disability, whether you're in a wheelchair or whether you're blind, there are certain criteria that the apartment needs to have grab bars in the bathroom, or you might have to have some kind of hot plate. So people can get around those accommodations. Doors need to swing perhaps both ways. So there's not enough of those. Apartments to go around. So, you know, if you're in a wheelchair, you know, things of that nature, the stove might be a smaller stove or you might have to have some kind of hot plate. So, you know, if you're in a wheelchair, you might have to go around in New York City. For the, for the volume of people now that live here with disability. Do you know, do you know the numbers? Because it all comes down to numbers and money. Do you know the amounts of people that live in New York with a disability? Physical, physical, physical, physical, physical, physical, physical. I mean, my elected officials on that question and, you know, I haven't gotten any numbers from anyone. So it's difficult to say in New York City. We have an office of the mayor, which is MLP D the mayor's office for people with disability. And, you know, on their radar, but, you know, they just changed the guard. We have a new mayor now, Eric Adams. We don't know who the next commission is going to be for that office. The housing authority should have those numbers. Housing court for each of the boroughs would be a good place to start because they're the ones that actually see this in housing court, you know, people with disabilities are constantly struggling with services for their office. Can you, can you explain now, New York, you know, like I said, I don't mean to sound off here, but New York City Housing Authority, now there's differences between rule housing, where my wife and I are, and New York City Housing Authority. The same pot of money, just too many cheats spoiling, too many chefs spoiling the soup. Why is it that there has been, in your opinion, why has there been so many complaints around, in other words, if someone needs to repair in the New York City Housing Authority, sink, painting, investations, all kinds of issues, why is it that it takes so many people so long to fix or what they call that an open ticket, to fix something so simple? First of all, it's a good question. I used to work for the New York City Housing Authority. It should not take that long. If you have the manpower, if you have the crew, the maintenance crew, it should not take that long. Now, the problem is that... Because it becomes a problem with people with disabilities when you're dealing with lead, when you're dealing with dust, when you're dealing with infestations, because you can't breathe in roach and rat droppings, you know, especially when you have little... Yeah, no hot water. Thank you. Okay, okay. I know, sorry. It's just so much problems that housing is having when it should be something so simple to provide somebody, because if you're paying rent, whatever you rent you're paying, whether it be 30% of your income or if you're paying full rent, $700, $900 market rate, maybe more, fixing something is an infestation of roaches or rats. Shouldn't be a problem. Well, you know, people live under these conditions every day in New York City for long periods of time. Okay, okay. Let him speak. Go ahead. One of the main problems that continues to go on is no heat, no hot water, brooding through roaches, lead, asbestos. Sometimes, you know, during the wintertime, the boilers are not working. This is not a tenant problem. This is a management problem. And management, you know, needs to actually be put on check by the building department. Other entities need to step in if the housing authority is not capable of keeping up with the maintenance of the building. It's not just throwing out the garbage, running the compact, cleaning the elevators, but it's covering the holes, addressing the hot water, the heat, exterminating, getting the right people to come in to address the mold and the asbestos. This is done in a choreographed way where you do the entire building by section by section by section. Buildings get old like you and me. Our arteries get clogged up with what we put in, and every once in a while, you know, they need to be flushed out. And this is the problem. Maintenance, maintaining the buildings in working conditions, fixing the roof, doing the bricks on the outside, and building the walls. And this is the problem. The problem with the building is, is an anomaly somehow that the city is so big. They just let it go. When you have a building's apartment that come in because people call 311, and the problem is bigger than the call that comes in. He inspector, he's just there to do his task. When people live are making them sick. Our medical doctors this is the issue with people with disabilities because they can't afford to be sicker. Yeah, but our own medical doctors from our community know that these buildings are in such bad shape. They have everybody getting sick. Asmatic. They have breathing problems. They have conditions because of a cold because of the draft in the apartment because the windows are not winterized. Our medical community also keeps silent. So we have everything that's supposed to be going for us against us. There's nobody standing up collectively in addressing the problem in New York and in the country as a whole. We need housing to get the people that are in the streets out of the street and we need housing for the disabled. We need housing for people with mental illness. We need housing for them. Does it have to be separated between mental health housing and disabled housing? Should there be a separation? There needs to be some kind of housing for people who have history of mental illness. Because in that environment there might be a social worker, there might be a case worker, there might be maybe a small clinic in the building where you can come in if you're having an episode. These are the people that are trained to understand what the capabilities are to provide service to the people that live in their building with history of mental illness, substance abuse, depression is a reality, financial issues is a depression and then keeping us in a poverty state of mind is also something that spirals people into lashing out into society. So if these communities of housing are designed appropriately it definitely will make a big difference for people who are in wheelchairs for people who are elderly that can't get around in their certain buildings for them. Clearly you would want a nurse, you would want some kind of social worker, you would want someone there in the building to check up on them to make sure that they take their medication, that they're okay, that they're mobile, that they were able to get out the house, keep their medical appointments. Did you want to ask any more questions? Yes. Okay, can you repeat the question? Hold on, can you repeat the question slowly? Okay, will they improve the security in New York City housing? Because like security cameras and things like that. It's not just New York City housing, it's the board that needs better security because in terms of New York City housing the locks don't work, there's drug dealers that come in and this can be a problem environmentally for people with disabilities too. This is a big problem. Go ahead, go ahead, wait, wait, go ahead. That's a good question and we see it. This is your opinion, your opinion. No, this is not an opinion. This is a good question. We see almost every day that security is a problem because it's not there and we see it because the cameras that have been installed over the past couple of years have indicated that having cameras is a good thing but also having a camera in the lobby of the building and the elevator and on the hallways without the presence of a security guard is a problem and the level of crime that comes out of the neighborhood is now the issue that we're talking about there needs to be security security guard someone that will be at the front desk when you walk like a doorman. If you can have doormans in Manhattan for the rich we can have not a doorman but someone like a doorman, a security guard in the building. I kind of forgot. What exactly is a doorman? Is it a person that stands and opens the door? A doorman is basically someone that does that and does a little bit more he'll help people with the packages that live in the building he'll help people perhaps that are doing deliveries and also a doorman is a person who is in the lobby you know like pretty much like a security guard if somebody comes into that building that doesn't need to be there I'm pretty sure he's going to call the police department and that's exactly what we now need in New York City and across the board because for example co-op city a lot of the buildings in co-op city they have from like 8 o'clock in the morning to 3 o'clock in the afternoon and from 3 o'clock to 11 o'clock or something like that they have somebody standing there checking people in and out of the building and if you don't need to be there they'll you know that's because that's owned by River Bay so I guess if a building is privatized they have better services is that your opinion as well? it's again this is not an opinion the more you provide security wise the better for the people that live there the better for the building you know less theft less less property damage those people in co-op city that have that service I'm pretty sure they will want that service around the clock I have public safety officers here in Parkchester and there's not enough of them to go around if I see something that's going on from my window and I call they shouldn't take half an hour to get to the call are they really that busy and yet again this is a small area now let me give you another quick example we have cameras in the lobby of my building and they've been there for a long time and I'm glad that they're there the number one problem that we all have here everybody that lives here is that we can't see on the television or on the laptop who's ringing our doorbell because they say that secure that camera is is for the purpose of public safety officers and monitoring them I need to know who's ringing my bells so we're not working together we're actually working against collaborating these are simple steps so we have 12 minutes left so to to to prioritize and of course you don't have to mention a lot of stuff you're having housing issues your building is trying to get you out what's one thing if you're if the Bronx can hear you what's one thing that being an advocate you want to see changed or put a stop to so let me say this I've been in this apartment for 30 years and this is a co-op apartment so we are under new management the new management wants more than double the rent now again I live off government assistance I make a certain income and they're trying to evict us because we can't pay what they're asking for so they're taking us to housing court for an eviction in the city of New York in the burger of the Bronx housing court and the government here does not have a program that will help me transition from my current apartment to an affordable apartment they don't have that what they're telling me is that due to COVID right now we will handle this once we go back to housing court that there's a good possibility that I will have to go into a family shelter with my wife and my son who's four years old family shelters are terrible they don't provide the necessary securities that we talked about just moments ago when you're in a family shelter it's difficult to process the information because of the staff perhaps not being there and the paperwork it's all paperwork there is no housing available for us we have thousands and thousands of families in shelters and in the streets of New York we need affordable housing for the people who are being pushed down all due to rent increase and yet our government who funds us has nothing in the middle to pick up the pieces on our behalf government is actually pushing us out into the streets these are the saddest moments that I have seen every month Larry I see moving vehicles watching people my neighbors move out all because they cannot pay the rent can you give us an inkling to what how high the rent is in your establishment in your area and why people can't afford it so people live on fixed incomes the incomes don't go up as high as the cost of living the incomes don't go up as much market value market value is an investment for banks and companies and our government knows this and yet our government doesn't intervene on behalf of the people that have no means of keeping up with the cost of living so I saw on the news yesterday that the U-Haul companies have made a report that there are hundreds of thousands of people across America that are moving out of big cities like New York there are numbers out there we're being forced out these are the saddest trails of tears that I mentioned because it's like what they did to the American Indians they're pushing us out of our own community you have people with different salaries people that are working people who are actually working while COVID are moving out because they can't keep up with the cost of living now these are the middle class there's no talk about people in poverty people that are funded by the federal government wants us in a poverty state condition because they will be able to give us money like they've given money to everybody else all these corporate companies are getting funded just to stay afloat Arlene did you want to ask one last question before we end yes can people with a mixed alignment yes some people with disabilities which is a good thing have different means of earning their income some people with disabilities work some are fortunate enough that they're able to stay afloat and to keep up with the cost of living but you have others that can't keep up you have medical conditions you have other things that get in their way that prevent them from keeping up with the cost of living staying in their neighborhoods traveling left and right having a hard time standing in the pantry for three hours just trying to get a couple of bags of food that's another issue anything else you want to say before we end the one thing that's really really important this ought to be an eye-opening experience to all of us who live in this great country that our healthcare system is not where it needs to be to provide service to us in general I shouldn't have to wait five months to see a medical doctor that's one thing now helping people with mental illness is a problem addiction, suicide our youth are the number one problem that I see that they are not interacting like they should as children because they are isolated they have to be at home they can't go out they can't be comfortable in schools they are the next problem of America in the future and there's no way I don't see how the country is addressing the problem of our kids today well I'd like to thank Dan Luporo mental health advocate of the Bronx for joining us on this edition of Abledon on Air thank you Danny for providing insight for those who need assistance in the mental health community and thank you so much for providing insight on this topic for more information on any topic today on Abledon on Air you can go to www.orcamedia.net that's O-R-C-A-M-E-D-I-A .net and this puts an end to this edition of Abledon on Air thank you to our sponsors Washington County Mental Health Green Mountain Support Services and many other partners for this program this puts an end to this edition of Abledon on Air I'm Lauren Seiler see you next time major sponsors for Abledon on Air include Green Mountain Support Services empowering people with disabilities to live home in the community Washington County Mental Health where hope and support come together media sponsors for Abledon on Air include Park Chester Times Muslim Community Report www this is the Bronx.info Associated Press media editors New York Parrot Online Newspaper US Press Core Domestic and International Anchor FM and Spotify partners for Abledon on Air the heart of New York and New England where everyone belongs the Orthodox Union the Division for the Blind and Visually Impaired of Vermont the Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired Central Vermont Habitat for Humanity and Montpelier Sustainable Coalition Montefiore Medical Center of the Bronx Rose of Kennedy Center Output Einstein College of Medicine of the Bronx Abledon on Air has been seen in the following publications Park Chester Times www this is the Bronx.com New York Parrot Online Newspaper Muslim Community Report www.h.com and the Montpelier Bridge Abledon on Air Abledon on Air is part of the following organizations the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Boston New England Chapter and the Society of Professional Journalists