Too many barriers to housing exist for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities

HOUSING

For people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), there are far too many barriers to housing.

Across New Hampshire and the nation, the fact is people with disabilities are experiencing a housing crisis. Without accessible housing in our communities, many are at risk of living in nursing homes or becoming homeless.

Approximately 1 in every 8 residents of New Hampshire, about 166,000 people, experience some type of disability. Public advocacy groups work hard on behalf of this population, and, while well intentioned, most organizations focus on employment, health insurance and education — none concentrate on housing.

New Hampshire took an important step in 1991 when it closed the Laconia State School which was an institution for people with disabilities that had a history of injustice toward its residents. At the height of their existence, the Laconia School had over 1,100 occupants.

When Laconia was closed, a new movement began to support people with disabilities living at home and in their communities. However, some say that the unintended consequences of the regulatory policies to prohibit “institutions” have created a new problem.

No one could foresee how adept people with disabilities would become outside of institutions. With the development of early intervention strategies, shortly after birth parents of children with IDD can begin to get their brains and their bodies moving in ways that we didn’t realize was even possible 30 years ago.

Even further, our public schools now have dedicated departments, teachers and therapists who collaborate and work daily with adolescents to prepare them for their future after high school or college.

All of this has led to a much stronger and more capable population of people with disabilities.

When closing institutions and passing new regulations, no one could anticipate what it would mean for the future, which now includes a very large segment of the IDD population who desperately want to live independently but need a small amount of life coaching along the way.

What does this mean? These adults can get up with an alarm, get bathed, eat their breakfast, and go to work or follow a schedule. Some may need a motivational boost to pick up their pace, some might need assistance getting to their job, and others may need a little help preparing their meal. But at the end of the day, they have the necessary skills and they long to have the independence that so many of us take for granted.

These individuals have very few housing options except for highly regulated group homes, with “medical house managers,” which provide services that many in the disability community don’t need. Further, group homes are few and far between in New Hampshire and have long wait lists. Getting lost is this large segment in the middle of the disability community.

As a result, young adults, and increasingly older adults, with disabilities are forced to live at home with their family. This crisis is exacerbated by aging caregivers (age 60 and older). As this generation of caregivers continues to age, many of their adult children with IDD may be at risk of ending up at an unwanted location, like a county nursing home, or worse, becoming homeless and bouncing around from family member to family member.

Our state should be congratulated for moving away from institutions, but now we have a responsibility to take the next step and provide the necessary tools to help people with disabilities live independently in an environment that is both suitable and liberating.

We can, and should, strongly encourage a new community-based housing model that provides “the middle” with more options such as small projects, near or in a downtown area, that can house 10-15 residents with an on-site life coach who can provide the limited guidance that these adults with disabilities need. It also gives residents an enjoyable setting and interaction with others that they would not otherwise have available to them.

Another fact that often gets overlooked is that finding friendships within the disability community is a very large hurdle. This additional opportunity would be icing on the cake while further defining the term “community.”

New Hampshire has always been a leader in advocating for people with disabilities. Let’s start leading in this new direction for those who yearn for independent living.

Michael Dennehy is the president of Next Step Living, Inc., a nonprofit organization established to provide housing for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities that recently launched a project in Concord.