Council to consider ways to help families of developmentally disabled adults

The province’s sudden injection of $6 million in new funding to support developmentally disabled adults won’t alter the heart-breaking decisions facing many families as Community Living BC continues to close group homes in search of financial savings.

This policy, which transfers clients to “shared living” arrangements akin to foster care, has seen developmentally disabled adults bounced from one home to another or even into acute care hospital after years of stabled, supported living in group home settings.

The Community Living Action Group, a broad-based coalition of organizations seeking full funding for CLBC, estimates the actual need is closer to $70 million.

A motion Councillor Kerry Jang and I are taking to next week’s council calls for a moratorium on the group home closures and calls on the city to take steps to do what it can to help affected families. One solution: creation of supported housing in Vancouver where parents and children of such families could live together.

So far, however, Victoria has not agreed to fund clients who live in such settings, even if parents are able to create them. Money is available, however, for “shared living.”