Community Housing for People with Disabilities:
Integrating Affordability and Supported Living: A White Paper
By Dale DiLeo
Lack of Affordable Housing is a Barrier to Supported Living
Does The Existence of Affordable Housing in a Neighborhood Lower Property Values?
Keys to Developing Affordable Housing
Overview of an Innovative Affordable Housing Project in Florida
Recommendations for Expanding Local Affordable Housing for People with Disabilities
Resources for Affordable Housing
Appendix
Recommendations for Federal Policy Changes to Increase Affordable Housing
Other State and Local Housing Initiatives
Supported Living
The vast majority of people with developmental disabilities in Florida who receive residential services outside of their family home are in congregate, provider-owned models. However, current thinking and practices in helping people with developmental disabilities live a quality life in their community are changing, especially with recent developments of more person-centered services and self-determination. This has developed into a movement away from the funding of" residential programs" toward the concept of "supported living."
Supported living means providing individualized supports to people with based on their individual strengths, preferences, and needs in their preferred communities. It is based on the principle that people have a right to live in their own homes, stay connected to families and communities of origin, choose what they want to do, with whom, when and how they want to do it. It presumes that people need more than just a place to live where they receive training and someone to provide assistance to them.
The following are the recognized essential elements of supported living:
• People will have homes of their own which they control. This includes selecting their homes in neighborhoods and communities of their choosing, as well as choosing whom they will live with or receive supports from.
• The selection and financing of people's housing, as much as possible, is separate from the selection and financing of the services and supports they receive.
• People will define the lifestyles they want. Where people's experiences have been limited they will be given opportunities and assistance in developing and expressing preferences for their lifestyles, instead of living according to regulations.
• People who formally and informally support persons with developmental disabilities learn and practice new ways of listening to what people want and dream about, and redefine themselves as allies in helping people achieve as much of what they want in life as can be achieved, rather than deciding what's best for the person.
• Service providers redefine their role to that of accommodating and supporting the personal preferences and desired lifestyles of persons with developmental disabilities, rather than trying to "fix" them.
• Service providers learn how to be less intrusive in the ways that they bring services and supports into people's homes, and be sensitive to and respectful of people's homes and the rights and courtesies associated with them, rather than making these homes like institutions.
• People exercise choice and control in what services and supports they receive and from whom.
• Service providers improve their abilities (and flexibility) to deliver services in different ways to different people in different places instead of offering a "one-size-fits-all" approach to supports.
• Service providers learn new ways of operating to adjust to a "market" for services in which persons served and the revenues generated are determined by demand for specific services, not a comprehensive contract to care for groups of individuals.
Florida Statute Section 393.063(48) defines supported living as:
"a category of individually determined services designed and coordinated in such a manner as to provide assistance to adult clients who require ongoing supports to live as independently as possible in their own homes, to be integrated into the community, and to participate in community life to the fullest extent possible."