Housing for Developmentally Disabled Stirs Debate
December 21, 2007
December 13, 2007; Omaha World-Herald -- A proposal for a residential campus for adults with developmental disabilities in the Omaha area has helped stir debate in Nebraska. Some advocates for people who are disabled say the campus, called the Nebraska Village of Promise, would be institutional and close residents off from the community.
As a person with Down syndrome, 30-year-old Jennifer Miller faces challenges. One of her biggest is where to live. Miller needs a place where she can feel independent. But she also needs help doing things like fixing her hair and making meals. "We continue to struggle with what is right," said her mother, Janet Miller, of Omaha. Finding the best living arrangements for adults with developmental disabilities is becoming a more pressing issue nationally. And a proposal for a residential campus in the Omaha area has helped stir the debate in Nebraska.
Some advocates for people who are disabled say the campus, called the Nebraska Village of Promise, would be institutional and close residents off from the community. Many parents take care of older children, but that's getting more difficult. Medical advances are helping people with disabilities live longer. And as the baby boom generation ages, family caregivers are getting older. "You can't just hope that somehow you are going to outlive your child with a disability," said Charlie Lakin, director of the Research and Training Center on Community Living at the University of Minnesota. "It is less and less likely to happen."
For years, the trend has been having people who are disabled live in the community, not clustered in large groups, said Patricia McGill Smith, president of the Arc of Nebraska, an advocacy group for people with intellectual and other developmental disabilities. "It has taken a long time to break the idea of thinking (that) people need to be with their own kind or set apart," Smith said. "I applaud (Village of Promise organizers) for working hard and thinking about helping their children, but don't use the old model." Backers say campus residents would not be isolated and that it would be a good alternative to group homes, and to adults now living with parents.
"The last thing we want to do is seclude these individuals," said Richard Secor, president of the 17-member Village of Promise committee. Secor and other parents, working with supporters, developed the campus plan for 100 to 200 adults age 19 and older who have developmental and cognitive disabilities. The campus would have about 40 acres and 20 to 40 housing units with a mix that could include homes, townhouses and apartments. Staff would provide supervision.
The campus probably would eventually offer a gym, theater, chapel, classrooms and places to work. Secor, whose 14-year-old son has Down syndrome, said residents would have opportunities to work and socialize off campus. Secor said his organization would use private money to buy land in the Omaha area by next summer and open the first housing units by 2010. Funding sources for the campus have not been set, he said. Private funding is the likely source for construction, which could hit at least $25 million.
