Foreword: How to Use This Guidebook
This guidebook has been developed to advance the consideration of consumer controlled housing options by people with developmental disabilities, their families, and others who help them. Consumer controlled housing - housing arranged with the needs and preferences of the consumer in the forefront, rather than the needs and preferences of the service provider or service funder - clearly contributes to the well-being of people with developmental disabilities. The guidebook outlines some of the options available to people interested in creating consumer controlled housing arrangements. It describes major planning considerations, housing options, supportive services and their funding, and available resources. It also includes a number of stories shared by people with developmental disabilities and their families that illustrate how they created housing arrangements and supports that allow them to control their own housing.
The information presented here is an overview of current knowledge, but new developments are occurring every day. For this reason, and in recognition that each person's needs are unique, this guide isn't a "cookbook" with explicit models and instructions. It's intended to help readers consider options and to stimulate the creative thinking required to determine the most beneficial housing arrangements for each person.
It's important to note that housing alone is insufficient to support most persons with developmental disabilities in the community - supports and services are also crucial elements. For this reason the authors hope this material will be reviewed not only by people seeking greater control over their housing, but also by those who are in positions at many levels to provide those supports and services. These include advocacy groups serving people with disabilities, county and state elected officials and administrators, case managers, mortgage bankers, real estate professionals, housing developers, service providers and other members of the community in which people with disabilities live. To support the development of consumer controlled housing in Minnesota, Arc Minnesota has on staff a full-time housing consultant. You can contact the housing consultant for more information about the Fannie Mae mortgage demonstration program and other information about helping persons with disabilities and their families to become homeowners. Arc Minnesota and other agencies plan to stage workshops for families, consumers, and others. The worksheets found in Appendix A have been designed for these workshops, as well as to assist the readers of this book.
The authors hope this guide will serve as a catalyst for people to work together to fulfill the promises of inclusion, self-determination, independence, and choice that are so frequently voiced but less frequently delivered to persons with developmental disabilities.
Acknowledgments
Many people with a variety of expertise and perspectives have helped to produce this book. Their contributions have facilitated what is intended to be a useful, comprehensive, and accurate resource.
We would like to thank the following people who contributed written materials, provided feedback, or reviewed the materials for the first edition of this guidebook: Alex Bartolic, Bob Brick, Richard Bunin, Milt Conrath, Vivian Erickson, Cathy Ficker-Terrell, Tom Fitzpatrick, Arnie Gruetz-macher, Karen Grykiewicz, John Hastings, Kay Henderickson, Deb Holtz, Gene Martinez, Al Mattson, Marijo McBride, Theresa Mustonen, Bob Prouty, Gary Smith, Diane Sprague, and Deb Verdi.
We are grateful to Cheryl Morgan, Laura Lafrenz, Jennifer Sandlin, Charles Gibbons, Mike Vosika, and Vicki Gaylord for their assistance in preparing text and design for this guidebook.
We would especially like to thank the individuals and families - many of whom have chosen to remain anonymous - who shared housing stories with us. We are grateful to them for giving us their stories and even more so for their leadership in pioneering the way to consumer controlled housing.
Finally, we would like to thank ReliaStar Financial Corporation and the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (U.S. Department of Education) for the financial support they provided to Arc Minnesota and the Research and Training Center on Community Living at the Institute on Community Integration for the development, production, and dissemination of this guidebook.
The following individuals were involved in the compilation, writing, and editing of this guidebook:
First Edition
Tom Fields
Charlie Lakin
Bud Seltzer
Rachel Wobschall
Second Edition
Tom Fields
Charlie Lakin
Bud Seltzer
Grace Backman
Diane Sprague
Mary Hinze
Dennis Collins
Arnold Gruetzmacher
Lynne Megan
Bob Brick
Barbara Polister
Kathy Luebke