New Policies Could Exacerbate Housing Crisis for Autistic Communities

Amy S.F. Lutz provides in-depth coverage of an emerging crisis for the autism community around the country. To illustrate the scale of the crisis, Lutz writes:

Right now, 80,000 autistic adults are on waiting lists for residential placements that can be up to 10 years long, and the nonprofit advocacy organization Autism Speaks estimates that half a million autistic children will transition to the adult state-by-state funding system over the next decade.

Despite the current and expected crisis, new federal rules would end a waiver program that allows some states to permit group houses that congregate communities of larger than four individuals. The problem, according to Lutz, is that "[c]ongregate settings for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) have been discouraged for years." The prevailing policies stem from conditions revealed in the 1960s. "It seemed pretty simple: community good, institutions bad. But these two terms have proven extraordinarily difficult to pin down. Is the difference merely one of size?" 

Some states are poised to answer the question by adopting standards established by the National Council on Disability in 2011, defining "institutional settings as housing situations in which more than four people with I/DD" live in a single home.

Those standards, however, don’t reflect the kind of community living that benefits individuals with severe autism, which will limit scant housing and treatment options even further.

The article is a long read—complete with anecdotes, historical context, and thought-provoking arguments from the workers and researchers working to provide quality of life improvements for those with autism.