Good afternoon. On behalf of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Wan Kim I would like to thank the Mississippi Department of Health for its kind invitation to address this conference. I would also like to thank you in the audience – the representatives of the federal, state, local and community agencies and organizations participating in this conference – for your collective efforts in the area of Civil Rights. I look forward to strengthening the relationship between the Department of Justice and your agencies and organizations.

I am here today to talk about the work of the Civil Rights Division. The Civil Rights Division has wide jurisdiction to combat discrimination in a variety of contexts – employment, education, housing, and voting, to name but a few. The Civil Rights Division was founded in 1957, and next year we will celebrate our 50th anniversary. We have grown considerably since 1957, both in size and jurisdiction. In 1957, the Division was focused exclusively on the monumental task of ending racial segregation in America and consisted of a handful of dedicated attorneys. While we continue to fight racial discrimination, we now have more than 350 attorneys. Our mandate has expanded to encompass discrimination based on national origin, sex, religion, disability, and many other areas.

I understand that the bulk of today’s session is devoted to addressing some of the civil rights issues, concerns, and challenges arising from Hurricane Katrina. I would like to discuss two important issues on which the Civil Rights Division has focused in Katrina’s wake. The first is enforcement of the federal fair housing laws, especially in the context of individuals displaced by the storm. The second is improving emergency preparedness for the disabled.

Let’s begin with housing. In the aftermath of the Hurricane Katrina, there clearly was a huge shortage of housing in the Gulf South, both in areas devastated by the storm and in areas where Katrina victims relocated. While that shortage still exists in many, many areas, the last think Katrina victims should have face in putting their lives back together is housing discrimination. As displaced residents return to New Orleans and other areas in the Gulf South, they should not face discrimination in their search for new housing. And displaced residents who do not return, either because they decide to stay in relocation areas or because they cannot afford to return home yet, likewise should not face discrimination in their search for housing.

On February 15, 2006, Attorney General Gonzales, inspired by the plight of displaced victims of Hurricane Katrina, “Operation Home Sweet Home” – a concentrated initiative to expose and eliminate housing discrimination. Home Sweet Home focuses and expands the Civil Rights Division's Fair Housing Act testing program, which has been in place since 1991. Under this program, persons pose as prospective renters or purchasers of a home for the purpose of gathering information about whether a housing provider is complying with the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination by housing providers on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, or disability. For example, a "test" may involve an African-American person and a Caucasian person each inquiring separately about the availability of the same apartment. We then compare their experiences to determine if the real estate agents or landlords misrepresented the availability of rental units or offered different terms and conditions to our testers to rent or buy the home. Such comparisons may reveal that the housing provider is illegally treating persons differently based on race, national origin, or familial status.

Through Operation Home Sweet Home, the Department will improve the effectiveness and reach of its testing program over the next two years. First, we will concentrate testing for housing discrimination in areas recovering from the effects of Hurricane Katrina and in areas where Katrina victims have been relocated. As you all know, Hurricane Katrina displaced a large number of persons, many of them minorities, who are seeking new housing. Our efforts seek to ensure that these displaced residents do not face discrimination in their search for housing. Second, we will concentrate testing in areas that, based on federal data, have experienced a significant volume of bias-related crimes like cross burnings or assaults on minorities. We do this because areas that have experienced up-tick in of bias crimes may also harbor housing discrimination. In addition, we will increase our outreach to state and local agencies and organizations like yours to better target our testing to problematic areas.

Through these and other measures, the Department will conduct an all-time high number of fair housing tests over the next two years in an effort to ensure the rights of all Americans to fair housing. I would like to take this opportunity to ask each of you in the audience to assist us in this endeavor. You and your agencies are in an ideal position to affect change in the area of housing discrimination as you are in close and consistent contact with the communities that you serve. Please tell us about housing discrimination in your communities. I urge you all to visit our fair housing website for more information. It is located at www.usdoj.gov/fairhousing. There you will find more information about the testing program and contact information, including our fair housing tip hot-line and email address.

Now let me turn to a second major area of focus by the Civil Rights Division post-Katrina: emergency preparedness for the disabled. An important role of local government is helping its citizens prepare for and respond to emergencies. Ensuring that local government emergency preparedness and response programs are accessible to the full range of people with disabilities is a critical part of this responsibility. Making these programs accessible is also required by the federal civil rights laws.

The primary goal of the Civil Rights Division’s Disability Rights Section is to achieve equal opportunity for people with disabilities in the United States by implementing the Americans with Disabilities Act, known as the ADA. Title II of the ADA requires nondiscrimination in the provision of state and local government programs, services, and activities to persons with disabilities. The Division has extensive authority under Title II to work with state and local governments to ensure that public entities do not exclude individuals on the basis of disability when they provide programs or services to the general public. For instance, Title II requires state and local governments to make their existing public facilities – including emergency shelters – accessible to people with disabilities. Also, Title II requires that new facilities be designed in a manner that makes them accessible to the disabled.

As many of you in this room know, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita severely impacted senior citizens and people with disabilities of all ages in the Gulf South region. According to the 2000 Census, almost 250,000 of the residents of the New Orleans metropolitan area described themselves as "disabled." In other words, over 20% of the city's residents were people with disabilities. Twenty-five thousand people stated that they were blind or deaf. Over 100,000 people stated that they had a physical disability that prevented them from walking, climbing stairs, lifting, dressing, bathing or even getting around inside their own home. Not surprisingly, many people with disabilities as well as senior citizens had significant difficulties in evacuating, sheltering, and obtaining necessary medications and durable medical equipment in the periods during and following Hurricane Katrina.

Through our enforcement and technical assistance outreach programs, the Civil Rights Division has shown a deep commitment over the last several years to making emergency management programs responsive to persons with disabilities. Spurred on by the sense of urgency created by last year’s storms, the Civil Rights Division recently created a new technical assistance document entitled “An ADA Guide for Local Governments: Making Community Emergency Preparedness and Response Programs Accessible to Persons with Disabilities.” This tool is a good introductory resource for state and local governments as it provides guidance on preparing for and carrying out emergency response programs and services in a manner that is accessible to people with disabilities. The document gives guidance for all stages of emergency preparedness, from the initial planning to the provision of services during an emergency. This document is available on our ADA website: www.ada.gov.

Since Hurricane Katrina, we have worked actively with other federal agencies, on improving emergency preparedness and response at all levels of government. We have been a proud participant in the Interagency Coordinating Council on Emergency Preparedness and Individuals with Disabilities, known as the ICC. In fact, the Civil Rights Division led an ICC effort to establish a “one-stop Resource Center” at www.disabilitypreparedness.gov. This website provides practical information on how people with disabilities can prepare for emergencies, and includes guidance to help state and local emergency planners and first responders provide better emergency services to persons with disabilities.

The Division also participated in the National Plan Review, a review of state and local emergency preparedness plans mandated by President Bush and the Congress. Our role was to critique the emergency plans’ responsiveness to the needs of people with disabilities and senior citizens. The review, released to Congress and the public on June 16, found that the majority of the nation's current emergency operations plans and planning processes could not be characterized as fully sufficient to manage catastrophic events. The review makes recommendations for improvement, such as providing sufficient and timely accessible equipment, especially lift-equipped vehicles, for education, during sheltering or residence in temporary housing and for returning home post-Katrina.

The Division also recently, participated in a national working conference on Emergency Management and Individuals with Disabilities and the Elderly in Washington in late June. The conference, sponsored by the Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services, brought together federal, state, and local emergency management officials with disability and aging experts to work towards future cooperation in emergency management planning at the local level.

Another mechanism that the Division has used to advance emergency preparedness is a program called Project Civic Access, or PCA. Project Civic Access began as a nationwide effort by the Department of Justice to ensure that cities and towns are accessible to people with disabilities. Through PCA, the Department enters into agreements with cities and town to maximize their ADA compliance through physical infrastructure and other improvements and modifications. Traditionally, the main focus of the program was on town halls and city facilities, such as parks, sidewalks, and websites. In the wake of the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the Division broadened it efforts to include accessibility in emergency preparedness. For example, post-9/11 agreements require cities and towns to involve persons with disabilities and their advocacy groups in the planning process for emergency preparedness so that community’s needs are addressed during the planning process.

Unfortunately, the systemic failures exposed by Hurricane Katrina demonstrated the continued deficiencies in emergency preparedness for people with disabilities, and the need for vast improvement. For example, many persons with disabilities who needed assistance were separated from their personal care attendants, wheelchairs, canes, other assistive devices, or service animals when they were evacuated to the emergency shelters in the Louisiana Superdome and Convention Center. As a result, our Project Civic Access agreements incorporate several elements designed to achieve that improvement.

For example, notification of the disabled in the event of an emergency is an important issue our PCA agreements address. Public entities must ensure that emergency management policies and procedures address the needs of persons with disabilities. For example, where a city warns citizens of an emergency by audible alerts, such as sirens or police cruiser bullhorns, people who are deaf or hard of hearing may not hear the warning. To address this problem, some cities are developing systems using phone calls, auto-dialed TTY messages, and e-mails to notify pre-registered individuals with disabilities of an impending emergency. Other notification methods include providing real-time open captioning on television programming or dispatching sign language interpreters to television studios to assist in broadcasting important emergency-related news information.

Another important element of emergency preparedness for people with disabilities is evacuation plans. Project Civil Access requires state and local governments to establish evacuation procedures to accommodate people with disabilities and enable them to safely evacuate under trying conditions one key in this regard is ensuring accessible transportation. Some communities are establishing voluntary, confidential registries to aid in the emergency evacuation of individuals with disabilities these registries are used to locate and notify individuals. It is critical to establish procedures that with disabilities of emergencies and evaluations, and ensure voluntariness and confidentiality, provide a process for that their medication and DME are provided. Continually updating the registry, and promote the widest possible awareness and participation by the disability community.

Making emergency shelters accessible to individuals with disabilities is among the most important issues addressed by Project Civic Access. Historically, shelters have only been supplied with the basic necessities of food, water, and blankets. PCA requires state and local governments to adopt a more sophisticated, comprehensive approach to ensure accessibility to people with disabilities. Communities must provide accessible places of entry and egress, as well as accessible bathrooms. Furthermore, a shelter cannot turn away someone who comes with a service animal because of a “no pets” rule. Emergency officials must consider the needs of individuals who use electricity to power life sustaining devices or who use medication that require refrigeration. The ADA Emergency Preparedness Guide for Local Governments I mentioned earlier explains that there should be at least one shelter with a backup generator. These measures will ensure that evacuation and emergency preparedness services provided by state and local governments will be accessible to members of our communities who were previously overlooked.

Over the life of Project Civic Access, we have conducted reviews in all 50 states, as well as Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, and entered into more than 140 settlement agreements with local governments across the country. Some of our PCA partners include cities that are bound to be familiar to you, like Birmingham, Alabama; Chatham County, Georgia; Fort Walton Beach, Florida; and New Orleans, Louisiana. We are proud of these communities for making the commitment to enrich the quality of life for their disabled citizens. And when it comes to emergency preparedness, we at the Justice Department will continue to work to ensure that some of our society’s most vulnerable members are protected.

As President Bush said during a recent trip to New Orleans, “One of the things that we're working on is to make sure that we've learned the lessons from Katrina -- we've learned lessons at the federal level and state level and the local level. And we're now working closely together in preparation for the upcoming hurricane season.” While we make those preparations for hurricanes or other disasters, natural or man-made, it is vital to include people with disabilities at all stages of this process.

In closing, let me note that although we have accomplished much, there is much left to do to combat discrimination against person with disabilities and in the housing market. We at the Civil Rights Division stand ready to do our part and we will continue to work with you, our partner agencies and organizations in the Southeast and Gulf South, in pursuing both efforts.

Thank you.