Despite Gov. Chris Christie’s resolute stance on the issue, a growing group of individuals trying to prevent the closing of the developmental centers in Woodbridge and Totowa are not giving up.
The advocates convened in Trenton Jan. 7 to present Christie and state legislators with petitions signed by approximately 10,000 New Jersey residents in favor of keeping the centers open.
The friends and relatives of developmental center residents were armed with an additional 1,200 signatures gleaned from an online Change.org petition, as well as a letter from a Woodbridge Developmental Center resident who invited Christie to visit the facility on Rahway Avenue.
“It just shows the tremendous amount of support we’re getting throughout the state,” said Joanne St. Amand, president of two groups — the Woodbridge Developmental Center Parents Association and Save Residents’ Homes at Developmental Centers.
“In addition to that, we have over 30 signed resolutions from municipalities around the state, and we probably have another five more pending.”
St. Amand’s involvement in the issue is personal. Her sister Rosemary, who will turn 59 in March, lives at the Woodbridge facility.
“She’s been there since she was 20, and she’s like a 3-month-old,” she said. “She doesn’t walk or talk, she needs to be spoon-fed, she needs to be lifted and carried to places or … use the Hoyer Lift to put her in her wheelchair or into bed. She’s totally dependent on everyone. Woodbridge has just been great for her. They’ve taken care of her every need.”
The impending closures of the Woodbridge facility and the North Jersey Developmental Center in Totowa are the result of a binding decision by the state Task Force on the Closure of State Developmental Centers, which issued its report in August 2012.
Christie has said in the past that residents of the developmental centers should be moved into the community.
However, St. Amand and other proponents of keeping the centers open say individuals with needs like Rosemary need the kind of care that is only offered at such facilities.
Community providers are not held to the same federally mandated standard of care as developmental centers, which must meet the federal care standards of the Intermediate Care Facilities for Individuals with Mental Retardation program. The standards include specific training requirements for staff members and reporting requirements, among other things. Also, most of the residents of the developmental centers are being moved to other state-operated centers, according to St. Amand.
She said a major hardship would be traveling “two hours away to Vineland, New Lisbon or Woodbine Developmental Center” if the two North Jersey centers are closed.
“It’s just an awful decision to make — to either give up your intermediate care facility at the developmental centers and go over to the [Medicaid] Community Care Waiver [to live in the community] if you want to keep your individual close-by to visit, or if you want to stay in a center, to have to go so far away to South Jersey. We hope that the governor listens and will help us find another solution,” she said.
When asked to provide a response to the delivery of the petitions, a spokesperson for Christie referred back to the governor’s comments from nearly a year ago.
“We’re not revisiting it. It’s done,” Christie said during a March 2013 press conference. “That’s the deal I made with the Legislature last year, and we’re not revisiting it just because three or four hundred people showed up at a hearing. That’s the way it goes. … Some people are going to be happy with some of these decisions; some people are going to be unhappy. The unhappy will have to be unhappy. These decisions have to be made.”
Christie said in February of last year that the closure of the centers leaves more money in the budget to place the residents into housing for those with special needs.
In November, state Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex), chairman of the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee, said he planned to look into the issue in order to address residents’ concerns and indicated that the committee would hold a hearing in mid-January.
The state Senate last week passed a bill sponsored by Vitale, designed to ensure that many residents of the state facility are able to remain in the local community.
The bill would authorize the state to sell to Woodbridge Township a 15.5-acre property located in the Avenel section. The property would be dedicated for housing and recreational purposes, with a portion of the housing dedicated as special needs residences for those with developmental disabilities.
The proposal now heads to the Assembly for further consideration.
“The state needs a plan, and not a quota system, on how many [residents] they can move out every month,” St. Amand said. “They’ve been moving way too fast. It’s too much stress on everyone. … To evict these individuals is just tragic.”