A Home for Darin
By His Sister
When my brother Darin was born, the experts advised my parents to put him in an institution. They said he'd never walk, talk, or be toilet-trained.
Darin has a large family - seven sisters and one brother. All of us pitched in to help him learn the things they said he'd never learn. Darin learned to do it all, proving a lot of love and hard work pays off. When Darin lived at home he washed dishes, vacuumed, and all the rest. He was never treated any differently from the rest of us kids. After graduating from high school, Darin and Mom decided it was time to move on. Darin had the opportunity to move to Community Involvement Programs' Northern Light Group Home where he worked on improving his community skills. In 1990, the family discussed the next step for Darin. I had been working as Assistant Director at Northern Light and had attended a conference with Darin and Mom on home ownership. After this conference Darin, along with the family, decided he should have a home of his own. So we started to work on getting Darin a home. Darin also needed supports to live in his home. The county said "no problem - we'll find a way to fund staff from CIP to provide support." Darin also needed some companions who, in addition to being friends, could add financial support for the house.
The next step was to purchase property. After an extensive search, I helped Darin and Mom purchase a six acre site on the south end of Sandstone. Darin and Mom own this property jointly. One of Darin's childhood friends wanted to move into Darin's house when completed. Her parents offered to lend Darin the money on a Contract for Deed. I designed the plans for the house with a friend and ground-breaking took place in July of 1992. After a lot of excitement, Darin and his friends moved into the house at the end of that October. Darin was very involved in this process, choosing many items for the house, such as the color of the siding, carpet styles, paint colors, and cabinets.
There were many obstacles to be overcome, like how Darin could get Medical Assistance and still receive rent, wages, and so forth. Darin no longer gets Medical Assistance and if he were to have a medical emergency he would have to pay a large spend-down to have Medical Assistance pay the rest of his medical bills. At times he also finds it difficult to pay all his bills, taxes, and insurance. But the family feels that's all right: those are the struggles any person experiences - and why should Darin's life be any different from the rest of ours?
Five years later, the same people still live in the home. There have been typical housemate struggles: sharing items, getting on each other's nerves, normal day-to-day difficulties. They've learned to work most situations out or accept how it is for the day. Darin now gets Medical Assistance due to new legislation passed in 1999. His property taxes are going up annually. Darin wants to build a new home - he would like this one to be bigger and have a hot tub in it.