Reinstated funds benefit new Lawrence group home

Fourteen Lawrence disabled adults able to move in now.

By: Cynthia Koons
   LAWRENCE — Fourteen disabled adults will be able to move into Project Freedom’s new group home in Lawrence, after months of waiting for the state to reinstate the $11.7 million it removed from its budget for group homes.
   These 14 are only a portion of the hundreds of disabled adults who will be able live independently in group homes statewide now. Four of these facilities are opening in Mercer County.
   Up until last Wednesday afternoon, disabilities groups were actively lobbying state officials for the reinstatement of the $11 million that was removed from the budget for these new homes. As many as 84 group homes which had already been built were sitting empty statewide, awaiting staffing and furnishing which was supposed to be financed by the Department of Human Services.
   On May 7, the state Department of Human Services Commissioner, Gwendolyn Harris, announced that her department had located a source of funding to complete those projects and allow the 402 ready individuals to move in.
   The funding is coming from Medicaid, which state spokeswoman Pam Ronan said was over-budgeted for in the coming year.
   "When you propose a budget you’re actually using data that’s six months old," Ms. Ronan said. "Medicaid is very large, when the budget projections were done the caseloads were much higher."
   She said the department has received approval from the legislature and governor to allocate the excess of $11.7 million toward the group homes.
   Her department heard quite a bit from concerned families when the group homes were awaiting funding, she said.
   "Certainly ($11.7 million) is the maximum that we’ll be doing in new homes in the fiscal year 2004," she said. "What comes beyond that, I can’t say. But we will continue to work closely with families and individuals that will need these services in the future."
   Today there are still 7,000 developmentally disabled adults that are listed as "urgent" on a waiting list for home placements in New Jersey. Many of these adults have parents who are elderly and are interested in entering assisted living environments themselves.
   "These are people who are born with a disability and are home with their parents and their parents can’t care for them because they are elderly," Elise Gambino, vice president of Allies, Inc., said.
   Allies, Inc. was run out of Allentown until 2001 and has since relocated its offices to Hamilton Township. The company is one of the many private non-profit organizations that manage group homes and assisted living environments for developmentally disabled adults.
   In neighboring Washington Township, a group home called Project Freedom offers living situations for 46 individuals in 35 units.
   Executive Director Tim Doherty said his company has 48 units in Hamilton and is currently constructing a facility in Lawrence Township.
   The funding that was held up in the state appropriations process, will now allow the individuals to move into Project Freedom’s new Lawrence facility.
   "I called and wrote several letters to our legislators," Mr. Doherty said. "But it seemed that as soon as it really became an issue and was publicized, the administrations seemed to have found a solution."
   A demonstration was planned for Thursday, May 22, in the event the funding was still unavailable at that time.
   "The rally has been postponed in an effort to work with the governor to restore these cuts," Mr. Doherty said. "It may take place at a later time, if these things are not resolved."
   Mr. Doherty’s 29-year-old daughter Jenny, who has cerebral palsy, is preparing to move into a group home as well. While she does not fall in the same category as the 14 disabled adults who recently received the state funding to move into the Project Freedom house, she is still eligible for services.
   "There’s a pecking order and we’re not necessarily going through DDD for that housing," he said. "Jenny is eligible to move in under the income guidelines."
   The developmentally disabled adults that live in Project Freedom housing and utilize Allies Inc.’s services are able to finance their rent with the money they earn in Supplemental Security Income (SSI).
   "One big thing is we really need to leverage the state money to obtain housing subsidy dollars," Mr. Doherty said. "Even with our affordable rent, it’s still most of the person’s income for the month."
   SSI payments average about $525 a month, Mr. Doherty said, with the rents on his apartments ranging from $525 a month for a one-bedroom and $575 for a two bedroom.
   "Without (federal) vouchers, most developmentally disabled adults couldn’t live here," he said. "The state has to do a better job in getting the (federal) money back into the state and the division has to do a better job obtaining (federal) money for their clients."
   With the federal vouchers, disabled adults are required to contribute 30 percent of their income to rent.
   Many of these adults are able to work, with the assistance of organizations like Allies Inc.
   "They’re integral parts of the community, most of them hold jobs and are very active where they are living," Ms. Gambino said. "We meet individuals and do proposals for them."
   "If they’re living in Allentown and they’ve lived their whole life in Allentown, we try to find two or three other people for them to live with so they can stay where they were born and where their friends are," she said.
   "Some people live by themselves in an apartment and have two to three hours of supervision," she said. "Some need total assistance, getting up, eating breakfast, getting into the community."
   For those adults awaiting group home placement, she said the freeze on state dollars was a serious threat to her business.
   "We had homes we’d been working on for a year and we had furnished, did renovations, people were ready to move in," she said. "They put a freeze on all of our programs, they said they were going to take the money away."
   Allies, Inc. is now able to open 11 home statewide for more than 40 disabled adults. Yet she said this progress is only significant if it proceeds.
   "The concern on top of that is, there’s currently a waiting list of about 7,000 people," she said. "That’s why it’s so important for us to continue these programs."