Call to dismantle barriers to developing autism friendly affordable housing

When more than three or four people with disabilities live together, either out of friendship or to share resources with people with common interests and needs, some disability rights advocates condemn the practice and compare it to life in institutions of more than fifty years ago. Whether it is a group home or a larger intentional community or a publicly or privately operated facility, they are all bad according to these advocates.

Touring a 21-unit disability housing complex in Gilroy, CA, Jill Escher describes how congregate housing for people with autism and other development disabilities are needed to tackle the problem of serving and housing people with severe disabilities. 

Encouraging these projects is better than attempting to sabotage them in the name of disability rights. 

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I visited a 21-unit disability housing complex and it was nothing remotely like an "institution"

A disability housing advocate calls for the dismantling of bureaucratic obstacles preventing the development of autism-friendly affordable housing.

by Jill Escher
8/31/21 

One of the most ludicrous and damaging battles waged by so-called “disability rights” activists is their deranged crusade to de-fund congregate-style residential facilities, which they routinely likened to “institutions” of old that once housed 1000’s of residents. It is of course nonsense, but this line of absurdist reasoning has already had a damaging chilling effect on needed developments aimed at the intensive needs of the autistic and developmentally disabled. Any development with more than a handful of disabled residents can become the target of immediate witch-hunt-like suspicion, and as a consequence, many projects die before they can get off paper.

This insane self-sabotage came to mind as I recently toured a lovely 20 year-old housing development in Gilroy, California, located some 30 miles south of the Silicon Valley area. Villa Esperanza was built in the late 1990s when it was still totally cool, and indeed noble!, to say, “We are creating housing for the developmentally disabled.” This was before groups like the Autistic Self Advocacy Network and others routinely hurled poisonous accusations at such developments calling them “isolating” and “institutional.”

The primary goal of Villa Esperanza, created by a nonprofit housing developer, was the provision of affordable housing for adult developmentally disabled individuals and their families. It received a construction loan (Section 811) from HUD and smaller loans as well. Other local nonprofits were involved in the planning, and now the administration. For the past two decades it has provided 21 units of desperately needed housing at affordable rates. The person with DD pays a portion of the rent (perhaps about $300, representing 1/3 of their SSI income), while the balance is paid by the county Housing Authority with HUD funds. Some tenants live independently, some with roommates, some with professional supports chosen by the client. Most tenants access the community on a regular basis and attend supported employment or day programs. The mini-campus also features a community room for social gatherings. 

As I toured the grounds I could only think, “Given the skyrocketing rates of autism, why are there not Villa Esperanzas everywhere? Why isn’t this model — a public-private partnership providing affordable, subsidized units to DD adults in a safe, serene setting — a go-to norm for our population?” ...

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Read More at the Blog for the National Council on Severe Autism (NCSA)