$60K OK’d for new center for people with disabilities

The Northern Marianas Housing Corp. has approved a $60,000 funding for the construction of a center for people with disabilities on Capitol Hill.

NMHC executive director Maria Lourdes Ada informed Thomas Camacho, executive director of the CNMI Council on Developmental Disabilities, of the housing corporation’s approval before a board meeting yesterday.

Camacho expressed appreciation of the NMHC board’s decision, saying the construction of a new center will greatly help people with disabilities.

He said the money will be used to fund the conversion of an existing residential building on Capitol Hill into an Independent Living Transitional Model Home Center.

In their proposal, advocacy groups said the center will “showcase a state-of-the-art transitional model home featuring the latest accessibility design and assistive technology.”

The center will feature amenities ranging from an accessible parking stall to power assisted doors and windows, and environmental controls. The facility will also have a kitchen equipped with accessible cooking hardware, sink, cabinets, and drawers, as well as refrigerators, microwave oven, washers and dryers, dining tables, bed, lighting, smoke detectors, closets, and restrooms.

“”There is [currently] no single daytime facility presently providing independent living skills training to all persons with disabilities. As a result, individuals with disabilities lack a proper training facility to learn independent living skills,” the groups said. “This is specifically significant to younger people who, with proper independent living skills at early ages, could have a fuller life and live independently throughout their adult life.”

These skills include homemaking, cooking, washing and drying, and bathing.

The CDD, along with the CNMI Association of Families with Disabilities and the CNMI Centers for Independent Living, made the funding request to NMHC on April 16, 2004. In August, the housing body issued a list of selected project proposals. The list, however, did not include CDD’s request.

Yesterday, Ada told Camacho that the U.S. Housing and Urban Development did not approve the Mihaville Water Upgrade project, for which the NMHC had allocated $98,832. The housing corporation then decided to grant instead $60,000 of this amount to CDD’s project.

The Department of Public Works estimated the renovation to cost $72,000.

Aside from the funds from NMHC, federal funds are available to complete the project.

The advocacy groups said the architectural and engineering design, the building, and cleaning and demolition requirements were donated as in-kind assistance.