This question is an underlying thrum with every heartbeat for those of us with a loved one who has special needs. As my husband and I have grown older with our beloved and blessed autistic children, it is has been a constant question hovering at the back of our minds.
Our children are intellectually and physically capable of self-care, home care, and work and have beautiful potential to live fulfilling lives! But, like most on the spectrum, social skills, adaptation to change, and communication can be difficult and they can panic and freeze up the face of crises, both large and small. Should my husband and I pass unexpectedly, we have no great riches to leave them and no extended family capable of giving them even the partial care they need long-term. We know that they will not qualify for enough government assistance to provide for both housing and sustenance. Homelessness is a very real possibility for our children and many like them.
Our calling here at ComInTX is to provide an alternative to that for autistic adults.
Although is is early days yet, we are already often asked to immediately expand our project to include pretty much everyone in the IDD/neurodiverse community who needs this level of affordable community. We know from experience that everyone on this planet is blessed with wonderful gifts and positive input to share! However, we also know that, just as surely as a leg amputee and a deaf person have different strengths and unique challenges, there are also different strengths and unique challenges in the neurodiverse population. At this time, we are specializing our project for the autism community, but we very much hope to expand in the future.
That being said, while seeking resources for our own children and researching for this project, we have – of course! – learned that we are not alone in our concern about the crisis in affordable and supportive housing at all levels for adults with special challenges. We are constantly encouraged as we learn of all the housing projects in various stages of development that are designed to provide for people with all levels of intellectual and developmental needs. Click here for our Connections page with links to a variety of projects. We will be adding more as we learn of them! If you are aware of a project not included on one of the links here, please comment on this page or send it to us for consideration at info@comintx.org.
By Karen Koiner