I’m going to Town Hall tonight to present my vision of a group home for 3-5 young men with autism that is safe, lively, and affordable.\u00a0 Here is my proposal.\u00a0 Feel free to adapt this to your own vision.\u00a0 For now, don’t think about funding, think about what your kid needs.\u00a0 Create your vision and work from there.<\/p>\n
Background:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Since 1991 there has been a tremendous increase in people living with autism.\u00a0 The CDC estimates autism occurs in 1 out of 110 births, more children than pediatric cancer, AIDS, and diabetes combined, * up from 2 in 10,000 in the 1980\u2019s. The CDC considers the rise in autism to be a public health crisis.\u00a0 Furthermore, this increased population from the last two decades is now aging out of the public school system. According to a recent article in Parade Magazine, <\/em>\u201cIn the next 15 years, an estimated 500,000 autistic children will graduate out of school systems in the U.S.\u201d\u00a0 This factor, combined with decreased entitlement money and strained governmental budgets, and the trend to encourage independent, non-institutional living for all, is creating a need for more supported housing than in recent years.\u00a0 Today the outlook for individuals on the autism spectrum is often bright, due to public education and Early Intervention.\u00a0 Many children and then adults on the autism spectrum can live in their communities, work, and otherwise lead fulfilling lives \u2013 provided there are adequate supports.<\/p>\n Rationale: <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n According to Dr. Peter Gerhardt, Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy<\/em>, \u201cThe University of Miami\/Nova Southeastern University CARD (2008) conducted an on-line survey of approximately 200 families of transition-age and adult constituents with ASD.\u00a0 The results indicate that 85% of adults with autism still lived with parents, siblings, or older relatives.\u201d This would indicate that there is a huge need for affordable and adequately staffed housing to be developed for this particular population.<\/p>\n Mission:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n To create a small, affordable group home in Xtown, MA, a town that is already diverse and accepting of all different populations, is close to Boston and many cultural attractions and opportunities.\u00a0 This home would be specifically geared towards young men with moderate to severe autism.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Description of Home:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n 1. Number of tenants varies according to funding levels: anywhere from 3-5.<\/p>\n a) 3 tenants and 1 live-in 24\/7 caregiver, asleep overnight but on the same floor; or<\/p>\n b) Up to 5 tenants with rotating shifts of 24\/7 staff, with ratios of:\u00a0 2:5, 1-2 :4, and 1:3.<\/p>\n c) Caregiver would have his\/her own bedroom, preferably bathroom, and some office space.<\/p>\n 2. Tenants are expected to be out of the home 9-3, M-F in day programs or jobs, which would leave caregiver free time during the day.<\/p>\n 3. Saturdays and Sundays <\/strong>tenants would have staff when they are in the \u201cprogram.\u201d\u00a0 Some (possibly all) might go to their family homes for part of the day on Saturday, Saturday night, and part of the day on Sunday.<\/p>\n 4. Home must be close to a T line to encourage community outings and greater opportunities for socialization and entertainment.\u00a0 The home would ideally be first floor, to contain noise from any excessive pacing of these tenants.\u00a0 Hopefully the home would be located on a side street for greater walking safety.<\/p>\n Staffing:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Autism spectrum carries with it particular and unique issues and challenges, different from other developmental disorders: communication, social, behavior, sensory, and cognitive issues.\u00a0 We feel that it is beneficial to this population to have caregivers that are experienced with autism, particularly ABA, Applied Behavioral Analysis training, a form of behavior modification that has been proven to be a beneficial treatment for autism for several decades, according to and article in the April 4 Wall Street Journal.<\/em> It makes economic and therapeutic sense for tenants with similar needs and profiles to live together, sharing trained staff. There would be a well-trained staff person on site 24\/7, whenever there are people at home. <\/strong>It is expected that some or <\/strong>all tenants would go to their family homes for Saturday night.<\/p>\n Funding:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n 1. Staff:\u00a0 Live-in caregiver would be funded by pooled Adult Foster Care money for 3 people, or, if there is state funding available, there would be rotating shifts of staff at a 1:4 ratio. <\/strong><\/p>\n 2.\u00a0 House:<\/p>\n a) Advocates, Inc., would purchase house using a combination of bank financing and loans\/grant from the state or town, private fundraising, and perhaps work with a bank <\/strong>interested in CRA points.<\/p>\n Advocates has a long, successful track record in the adult housing and supports arena.\u00a0 Advocates was founded in 1975 by a group of volunteers providing patient rehabilitation services on the grounds of Westborough State Hospital, Advocates is now one of the largest human services organizations in the state. Today, Advocate employs over 1000 staff members and serves 20,000 individuals at over 100 sites across Eastern and Central Massachusetts.<\/p>\n b) X Housing Authority would provide a Project-Based Section 8 Voucher to subsidize the mortgage at 120% fair rate<\/p>\n c) Tenants would pay rent to Advocates using 30% of their SSI income.<\/p>\n d) Any remaining purchasing cost would be provided by a one-time capital investment by a non-profit interested in supporting low-income housing for people with disabilities.<\/p>\n *http:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/ncbddd\/autism\/index.html<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’m going to Town Hall tonight to present my vision of a group home for 3-5 young men with autism that is safe, lively, and affordable.\u00a0 Here is my proposal.\u00a0 Feel free to adapt this to your own vision.\u00a0 For now, don’t think about funding, think about what your kid needs.\u00a0 Create your vision and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pSTth-vy","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1956"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1958,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1956\/revisions\/1958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}