A Message from Waymo

Waymo (formerly the Google Self-Driving Car Project) published its first Safety Report for our fully self-driving technology. Safety is at the core of Waymo’s mission and we believe our technology could save thousands of American lives now lost to traffic crashes every year.

In the Report, we detail Waymo’s work on ― and our commitment to ― safety. This overview of our safety program reflects the important lessons learned through the 3.5 million miles Waymo’s vehicles have self-driven on public roads, and billions of miles of simulated driving, over the last eight years. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) recently issued updated federal guidance for autonomous vehicles, Automated Driving Systems 2.0: A Vision for Safety, and the Waymo Safety Report also contains information responsive to DOT’s guidance.

While there is a lot of promotion of self-driving cars these days, there is less discussion about the work that goes into making them capable, reliable, and safe. As the first company to put a fully self-driving car on the road without a driver, in 2015, Waymo has had to write its own playbook. That is why we use a safety-by-design approach ― discussed at greater length in the Report ― that informs everything Waymo does and affects every part of our cars, every step of the way.  [Read more…]

Many advocates have grown accustomed to using the Concrete Change website over the years for news, information, and other resources on visitability.

In 2016, NCIL learned from Eleanor Smith, founder of Concrete Change, that their website would soon be removed from the internet.  We worked with Eleanor Smith to preserve the decades of visitability resources she and Concrete Change developed.  NCIL revamped www.visitability.org and transferred to it to NCIL’s servers to preserve these important resources.

The website is a work in progress, so please email eleanor@ncil.org if you have any suggestions for content or other improvements. We are particularly seeking copyright-free high resolution photos of visitable homes of all types to add to the site.  We also would appreciate links to news articles regarding visitability to share on the website.

Special thanks to Eleanor Smith for her dedication to visitability and her work to make it a reality in our communities; Mary Johnson for gifting us the domain and framework; Pat Puckett for her support; and the NCIL Housing Subcommittee for taking on this project.

The NCIL Housing Subcommittee has been hard at work developing letters on two different issues to be sent to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). We have been keeping track of bills in Congress and the budget / appropriations process. As always, we’ve been on the lookout for new members. If you are interested, please contact Brian Peters at bpeters@independencefirst.org.

Many people do not appreciate the connection between housing and health. It works both ways: housing leads to better health outcomes (such as housing for people who are homeless), and better health coverage can result in more stable housing options as people don’t lose their housing due to medical issues. This is why it is very important for you to contact your Senator TODAY to protest the attempt to “reform” healthcare by overturning the Affordable Care Act and cutting Medicaid. The loss of Medicaid is a very serious threat to housing stability for many people. With the cuts over time, institutionalization will become the only option in many states due to a lack of funding for “optional” services (whereas nursing institutions is a mandatory service).

By Peter Johnke, NCIL Transportation Subcommittee Co-Chair

If you live in a rural area and don’t own a car or are unable to drive, getting from one place to another may be a challenge (at best) or impossible (at worst), if public transit doesn’t exist where you live or work. People with disabilities face many barriers to transportation and in rural areas, it can be particularly difficult.

In Vermont, there are ten different transit providers, each with their own system of routes and fares. Only the most populated area has ADA Complimentary Paratransit. Other regions use Deviated Fixed Routes and Demand Response Routes to meet the needs of people who need accessible transportation. If transit exists in your area, traveling locally may not be too difficult. But it becomes much more challenging when traveling from one region to another. Except for a few commuter routes and some intrastate routes, it’s very difficult to get from one region of the state to another. Yet, this is often necessary for employment, medical appointments, and even shopping. In Vermont, crossing county lines is routine. Accessible transportation is problematic for evenings, weekends, and holidays though.  [Read more…]

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard about President Trump’s budget, which cuts the Department of Housing and Urban Development by 13%, or 6.2 billion dollars. This is just a rough draft; there are no line items available yet, which should also show more changes.

• View President Trump’s Budget Blueprint (PDF). Housing discussion begins on page 25.

The budget blueprint announced the White House’s intention to eliminate the following programs:

• Community Development Block Grants (CDBG)
• HOME Partnership Program
• Choice Neighborhoods (formerly HOPE VI)
• NeighborWorks America
• Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity Program
• Section 4 Capacity Building for Community Development and Affordable Housing Program (which funds organizations like Local Initiatives Support Corp.)
• U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness

According to analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the other programs impacted are:

• Housing Choice Vouchers (a loss of 200,000 vouchers projected)
• Cuts to Section 202 (Supportive Housing for the Elderly) and Section 811 (Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities)
• Cuts to public housing funding, meaning that more than $26 billion in repair needs probably won’t happen

Housing has had strong bipartisan support in the past, so it is unlikely that Congress will follow all of the proposed cuts or eliminations. Nonetheless, we still must pressure Congress to not accept ANY of them!

But the real danger is that there is another source of pressure for cuts to housing: The Budget Control Act of 2011. It was begun as an agreement to reduce the budget with automated spending caps applied equally to defense and to domestic programs. In 2018, under the Budget Control Act, $14 billion would be cut (Trump’s budget cuts another $54 billion) compared to 2017. However, some in Congress have been seeking to circumvent this agreement by having higher cuts in domestic programs to fund increased defense spending. This is where the real fight will be happening.

Take Action

Call your Representative and your Senators to ask them to oppose cuts to housing! Ask them to oppose all of President Trump’s proposed program eliminations, to increase funding for Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers, and to eliminate the public housing backlog on capital needs.