NPI Tenant's Association
We Are One Voice, One Team
The Tenant's Association gives customers an opportunity to come together for support, sometimes with a get-together and sometimes with serious discussion. Each August the group holds a picnic at Ottawa Park. The free event brings food, music, games and door prizes to renters from both NPI apartment homes and affiliated group care sites. It's wonderful to see tenants, their families and staff interacting and enjoying the day.
Members hold monthly meetings to discuss housing, mental health, neighbor relations and customer service issues, and their input is factored into management decisions. For example, NPI conducted a security audit at the group's suggestion to assess and enhance the safety of its apartment buildings.
The TA also represents the mental health community at public forums sponsored by the Mayor's Commission on Disabilities, county/state elected officials and others. When advocates were needed to stand up for the rights of those with disabilities or to challenge budget priorities in Columbus, the TA was there (see photos below).
In short, the group provides consumers with a voice, one that is heard and respected by the Management Team and the larger community. Current goals include:
To be known by federal, state and local officials as a working force that fights for the rights of those with disabilities
To be an active voice for consumers of mental health services in Lucas County & Northwest Ohio
To learn about all the elements of self-advocacy
To get publicize information on recovery and client rights
To increase its membership
For more information please contact Facilitator Lillian Harris.
TA History
The Tenant’s Association was inspired by the efforts of former NPI tenant Audrey Pickering. In 2004 she advocated for HUD's Section 8 housing subsidy program, trying to dissuade Congress from slashing the federal budget. Audrey was one NPI tenant/employee who sent federal elected officials a powerful statement. She wrote a letter and backed it up with the signatures of every supporter she could find; there were hundreds of names in all, and she attached several dozen poems from NPI tenants on the topic of homelessness. When an NPI delegation visited legislators later in the year, they remembered Audrey's letter. She demonstrated that consumers can advocate for themselves and have an impact. Because of action like hers the HUD budget was largely spared that year.
Around that time the Tenant’s Association formed. The group was trained in leadership and meeting decorum. They established areas of interest as a team: building safety and security, legislative action, events, and a quarterly newsletter called RISE (Renters In a Supportive Environment).
In 2005 the TA lobbied for construction the Safe Haven Program in Toledo. Safe Haven houses 12 chronically homeless individuals in a beautiful new building in the central city. Unfortunately, there were businesses and individuals who did not welcome NPI clients as neighbors. The TA led the charge, inviting all supporters of the disability community to press for a needed zoning variance. A large crowd of advocates wore slogan T-shirts at the August council meeting when the decision was made. NPI's sea of white shirts made a solid statement of advocacy to Toledo City Council members (photo below). Council passed the minor zoning variance, and Safe Haven moved forward.
Advocacy in Action
SAFE HAVEN ADVOCATES: The Tenant's Association led the charge when advocates were needed to stand up for Safe Haven, which provides supportive housing for 12 homeless persons with mental illness in Toledo. Some city officials had hesitated to support construction of Safe Haven by eschewing a needed yet lightweight zoning variance; however, a green light was given when 100 advocates attended city council meetings on the topic. The program moved forward in 2005 and opened in 2007.
SPEAKING OUT: NPI Housing Support Specialist Larry Wanucha, left, joins tenants Barb Wither and Lloyd Campbell at a rally in Columbus in April 2005. The NPI group joined hundreds of others protesting state cuts to vital programs like Medicaid.