From a Community Residence to a Home of Their own

From a Community Residence
to a Home of Their Own

Pam Walker

The women are now living in a place that's totally theirs, that they don't ever have to leave if they don't want...The other thing that is really important is that so many different people have been a part of it, so many different agencies, not just dd agencies. The cooperative effort that it involves is really kind of amazing. And nobody could have done it without the other one; and we all worked together to make it happen.

Introduction

In the past few years, the Syracuse Developmental Services Office (DSO), in Syracuse, New York, has been moving toward closure of its institution, the Syracuse Developmental Center (SDC). In this process, administrators were determined not to hurriedly place everyone from the institution into community-based group homes and ICFs/MR. They realized that, in order to close SDC within a reasonable time frame, many people would in fact have to move into group settings, albeit mostly smaller than in the past. In addition, however, they planned to encourage and support staff to design individualized settings and supports for as many people as possible.

Around the Spring of 1993, the Director of the Syracuse DSO challenged staff members to begin thinking about people who they might assist to live in more individualized settings. To this end, five "interim case management" positions were created to provide staff to work more intensively on this. As a result of the efforts of these interim case managers, as well as many other staff within the DSO, a variety of creative, individualized supports have been developed. As Kristen, one of these case managers, described it:

The reality of all of this is that it takes a lot of time, and it's a lot of work, and a lot of connections have to be made. And, it's not something you can do and carry a case load of 45 people.

This effort has necessitated the collaboration of DSO staff with many other human service and community organizations. This article describes one of the situations that resulted from these efforts; it is the story of Sarah and Wendy Robertson's move from a community residence of eight people to their own home.

History

The story of Sarah and Wendy actually begins before their residency in the group home. As adults, they were living in Skaneateles, a small community outside of Syracuse, with their mother, Evelyn. Evelyn has many needs herself and was unable to maintain the household with her daughters without support. This resulted in the involvement of social services agencies, who ended up breaking apart this household. At this time, Wendy and Sarah were placed in SDC, where they lived for several years. Then, when the state opened a community residence in Skaneateles, Sarah and Wendy moved there.

With the inception of the interim case management role, these employees began thinking about people they knew of who might be interested in moving. One of these case managers, Monica, spoke with Sarah and Wendy, who were interested in moving. Monica then began meeting regularly with the Robertson sisters, their mother Evelyn, and staff at the group home to formulate clearer ideas of what Sarah and Wendy wanted and what the DSO could do. It was decided that they would pursue the search for housing in Auburn, since Wendy and Sarah have a number of family members in this area.

The House: Connections to Homsite, a Community Housing Agency

The director of community services for the Cayuga County region of the DSO was aware that the Robertson's were looking for housing possibilities in the Auburn area. At the same time, he was aware of a community housing agency, Homsite, and had collaborated with them in the past on home modification projects. He suggested to Monica that she contact them.

Homsite, which has been in Auburn for over 20 years, operates a wide variety of housing programs including Affordable Housing programs, Small Cities Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) programs, Farmers' Home, First Time Home Buyer program, Single Family Housing program, Section 8, and others. Many of these federal and state housing programs target people with special needs (e.g., senior citizens, people with disabilities, etc.) as a priority population to assist. Yet, very little use of these programs has been made to enable home ownership for people with developmental disabilities. As a staff member at Homsite explained:

It falls back to the supportive services agencies. It's going to take the initiative of the service agencies getting a hold of the housing agencies and saying, hey look, this is what we've got, this is what we want.

Accompanied by their case manager, the Robertson's came in to Homsite to meet and discuss the different options available. The outcome was a decision to pursue home ownership through Homsite's Singe Family Housing program.

Homsite had 15 houses under construction; if the Robertson's qualified for the purchase of one, some modifications could be made during the construction process. Applications are prioritized in the order in which they are received. The Robertson's went through the same application process that anyone else would to obtain a house through Homsite. Basically, this involved the need to qualify for a mortgage.

The initial cost of the house was $69,000. With a bulk sum of money obtained from the New York State Affordable Housing program, Homsite was able to write down the cost of each of the 15 houses by $19,000; and Community Development Block Grant funds enabled them to reduce the cost of each by another $13,000. Thus, the total write down was $32,000, resulting in a purchase price of $37,000.

The Deputy Director of the Syracuse DSO, along with other staff, strategized about the best way to approach the bank. They utilized advice that they had received from Jay Klein, of the National Home of Your Own project based in New Hampshire. They decided not to speak to the bank from a "this is the right thing to do," or a human service perspective. Instead, they opted to pursue qualification on the merits of the Robertson's financial situation. This was based on three components:

Demonstrating to the bank that they had a downpayment. For Wendy and Sarah, this consisted of the write-downs from the housing program, which constituted a considerable downpayment.

Demonstrating to the bank that they pay their bills. A letter of verification from the state Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities confirmed that Sarah and Wendy had consistently paid room and board in the Skaneateles community residence using their SSI income.

Demonstrating to the bank that they had a source of income sufficient to pay their mortgage and other financial obligations. As Sarah and Wendy's representative payee under the SSI program, the director of the DSO confirmed that, being categorically eligible for SSI, Sarah and Wendy would continue indefinitely to receive this money. In this respect, they could be considered to be less of a financial risk than most people in today's economic climate.

Since Homsite does a lot of business with Cayuga Savings Bank, they suggested that Sarah and Wendy approach this bank for the mortgage. The bank was very receptive to consideration of the mortgage application. As the case manager reflected:

The people at the bank were very much saying, we want this to work, we don't want you to feel like we're going to stand in your way. Even though this is a little different, we'll try, we'll tell you what we need, and we'll try and make this successful.

During the course of reviewing the mortgage application, only one major concern was raised by the bank. This was the issue of competency; whether or not Wendy and Sarah were competent to enter into a contract such as this. Staff at the DSO consulted with Legal Services of Central New York. A representative from this agency explained to the bank's attorney that, in New York State and many other states, people are presumed to be competent unless they are proven in court to be incompetent. This seemed to resolve the issue for the bank, and shortly thereafter Sarah and Wendy were approved for their mortgage.

Wendy and Sarah closed on their new home on August 4, 1994. As the director of community services in Cayuga County reflected: "Buying the house and getting in the door is like closing one chapter and opening another one." The next section of this article explores part of another chapter in the story of Sarah and Wendy--that is, creating the supports that enable them to live in their home.

Creating the Supports: A Collaborative Effort

Planning for and creating the supports that enabled Sarah and Wendy to pursue home ownership and that will enable them to live in this home entailed a significant degree of interagency collaboration and cooperation. In planning for the purchase of their new home and the support they would need to live there, Sarah and Wendy decided to invite their mother, Evelyn, to move in with them. This both decreased the need for more paid staff and reunited a family whom the service system had split apart. It will entail ongoing support for Wendy and Sarah, as well as for Evelyn.

Overall, funding to support Wendy and Sarah in this house comes from a variety of sources. Their SSI covers most of their basic living expenses. The Medicaid waiver pays for the residential habilitation services, case management, and home modifications. An individualized supports services (ISS) contract from the state provided $9,500 per person for start-up expenses and contributes a $200 per month subsidy to cover the household expenses not covered by their SSI income. Finally, Evelyn has agreed to be in the house in order to provide supports if needed from approximately 8:00 pm until 6:00 am. In addition, she contributes approximately $120 per month toward household expenses.

After numerous meetings and visits, Sarah and Wendy made the decision to hire Martha as their primary support staff person, through the Comprehensive Technology Center in Auburn. Martha's hours are from 8:00am to 10:00am, and 2:00pm to 8:00pm, Monday through Friday. A primary relief staff person works on weekday mornings from 6:00am to 8:00am, and Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00am to 8:00pm. Other relief staff are available, when needed. The hours of support can be increased or decreased, depending on Wendy, Sarah, and Evelyn's needs. For instance, during one month, staff stayed later a few evenings at Evelyn's request for extra assistance.

Everyone who has spent time with Sarah and Wendy since their move feels that both women like the change a lot. As time goes by, they are each taking on new responsibilities in the household and are gradually learning more about what it really means to have control and ownership of their own home.

Conclusions

There were a number of key factors which contributed to the successful process leading to home ownership for Sarah and Wendy. These include the following:

The cooperation and collaboration among a variety of human service and community agencies. Important connections were made with the housing agency in order to explore options for creating affordable housing that are available to community members, but that have been rarely utilized by community members who have developmental disabilities. In addition, it was crucial that all human services and community agencies work together throughout all phases of the process.

The willingness of the housing agency, the bank and insurance agents to give this application the same consideration they would others. This was facilitated by the approach taken to them by human service agency staff, assisting the women to present themselves as would others seeking a mortgage in this community.

The flexibility of the DSO in creating and supporting new case management strategies. Typical case loads are generally too high to allow the time and effort needed to develop individualized supports such as this. Thus, it was the DSO's flexibility with case management loads, and accompanying encouragement and support of creativity, that made possible the development of individualized supports and home ownership for Wendy and Sarah.

The willingness of agencies involved to explore home ownership for people with severe disabilities. In the past, many agencies have only explored options such as this for people considered to have mild disabilities. During the course of planning for this move, some staff in the agencies were fearful and skeptical about how it would work. Many people from various agencies have collaborated to help make this work for Sarah and Wendy. As such, it demonstrates to agency staff, parents, and other community members the possibilities of individualized supports for others who also have severe disabilities.

All names of people in this article are pseudonyms.

For further information about this case example, contact: Bob Ciota, Deputy Director, Syracuse Developmental Services Office, P.O. Box 1035, Syracuse, NY 13201, (315) 473-5050.

For information about national efforts to promote home ownership, contact: Jay Klein, National Home of Your Own Project, Institute on Disability, Heidelberg Harris Building, University of New Hampshire, 125 Technology Drive, Durham, NH 03824-4724. For a list of articles and papers by RTC staff and associates, please write to the Center on Human Policy, Syracuse University, 200 Huntington Hall, Syracuse, NY 13244-2340.

Preparation of this article was supported by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, U.S. Department of Education for the Research and Training Center on Community Integration through Cooperative Agreement H133B00003-90 awarded to the Center on Human Policy at Syracuse University. The opinions expressed herein are solely those of the authors and no endorsement by the U.S. Department of Education should be inferred. The Center on Human Policy subcontracts with TASH for space in the Newsletter.