Judge OKs deal on disabled in nursing homes

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This Aug. 26, 2011 photo shows Patti Werner, an attorney for Access Living, an advocacy group for the disabled, speaking during an interview in Chicago.  A federal judge approved a settlement Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011, in a lawsuit filed by Access Living in 2007, that could help thousands of disabled, low-income Illinois residents move out of nursing homes. The civil rights case, the last to settle of a trio of similar class-action lawsuits, represents another step in a sweeping transition in housing choices for disabled and mentally ill people in Illinois. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

Updated: January 22, 2012 8:16AM

A federal judge approved a settlement Tuesday that could help thousands of disabled, low-income Illinois residents move out of nursing homes. The case, the last of three similar class-action lawsuits to be resolved, represents another step in a sweeping transition in housing choices for low-income disabled and mentally ill people in the state.

U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow approved the deal at a hearing in Chicago, settling claims that Illinois violates the civil rights of people with disabilities by not giving them housing choices.

“The courtroom erupted in applause when the judge said she was going to approve it,” said Patti Werner, an attorney for Access Living, an advocacy group for the disabled that filed the lawsuit in 2007, along with other groups. “Now it’s time to roll up our sleeves and get to work. It’s going to take a lot to implement this.”

Next, attorneys for Illinois and the advocacy groups will recommend a monitor to oversee the implementation of the agreement. The state will spend $10 million on housing for at least 1,100 Cook County nursing home residents in the deal’s first stage. More people will be helped later.

The lawsuit is one of a trio of suits — all now settled — involving housing for mentally ill and disabled adults in Illinois.

Earlier this year, a judge approved a similar deal affecting 6,000 disabled adults living in privately operated care facilities and 3,000 adults living at home with aging parents and other family members. Last year, in the first of the cases to be settled, a judge approved an agreement involving 4,500 people with mental illness who live in specialized nursing homes.

Settling the cases has been a priority for Gov. Pat Quinn, said Quinn spokeswoman Brie Callahan.

“The governor committed to resolving these lawsuits when he took office, and today’s decree allows Illinois to move forward and increase opportunities and independence for our state’s elders and residents with disabilities,” Callahan said in an email.

Advocates for the disabled said Illinois’ long practice of supporting institutional care and underfunding alternatives like supportive housing violates the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Olmstead decision. In 1999, the Supreme Court ruled in Olmstead that unjustified institutionalization of people with disabilities was illegal discrimination.

The settlement in the current case outlines how Illinois will provide housing assistance and other money to help with security deposits, to build wheelchair ramps and to make other modifications to homes to make them more accessible to the disabled. Nursing home residents will be evaluated by qualified professionals to determine what help they would need to live more independently.