Solving the Problem of Housing Insecurity for Persons with Disabilities with Co-Housing



Behind nearly every family's housing search for an adult child with intellectual or developmental disabilities (IDD) is a number that rarely makes headlines, but should. Studies examining housing outcomes for adults with IDD have repeatedly found that a striking proportion — often cited around 40 percent — experience housing instability or insecurity at some point in adulthood, far exceeding rates seen in the general population. In Ohio, where waitlists for adult disability services can stretch for years, this isn't an abstract statistic. It's the daily reality shaping how thousands of families plan, or fail to plan, for their loved one's future.

Understanding why this number is so high, and what specifically drives it, matters enormously — not just for families currently searching for housing, but for policymakers, donors, and community members who want to understand where intervention could make a genuine difference. This piece looks honestly at the scope of the problem and the kind of solution that's actually proven to change it.



1. What's Actually Driving Housing Insecurity for Adults With IDD

The most immediate driver is simple scarcity. Across the country, the supply of housing specifically designed or adapted for adults with IDD falls dramatically short of demand, leaving families with far fewer real options than the scale of the need would suggest. In Ohio specifically, waitlists for Medicaid waiver-funded residential services can stretch for years, leaving families in a holding pattern with no clear timeline for when appropriate housing might actually become available.

Affordability compounds the scarcity problem. Many adults with IDD rely on Supplemental Security Income, which provides extremely limited monthly income, making market-rate housing entirely unaffordable without significant family subsidy or specialized affordable housing programs. The intersection of low individual income and a shortage of disability-adapted affordable units creates a uniquely difficult housing market that general affordable housing initiatives often don't fully address.

Family caregiving capacity is the often-unspoken third factor. A significant portion of adults with IDD currently live with aging parents, not necessarily because it's the ideal arrangement, but because no better alternative has been available or affordable. As parents age and their own capacity to provide care declines, this arrangement becomes increasingly precarious — sometimes resulting in a housing crisis that develops suddenly, following a parent's health decline or death, rather than through any planned transition.



Together, these factors create a system where families often face an impossible choice: remain in an unsustainable caregiving arrangement indefinitely, accept institutional or group-home settings that may not align with their child's needs or preferences, or navigate housing instability that disrupts the consistency and routine many adults with IDD depend on for their wellbeing.



2. Why Traditional Housing Solutions Fall Short

Standard affordable housing of supportive housing initiatives, while valuable, typically aren't designed with the specific needs of adults with IDD in mind. They may lack accessibility features beyond basic ADA compliance, offer no on-site or coordinated support services, and place residents in settings where staff and neighbors have no particular training or context for supporting someone with an intellectual or developmental disability.

Traditional group homes, or even pocket neighborhoods on the other end of the spectrum, often address support needs but at a significant cost to autonomy and community integration. These settings can feel institutional rather than residential, frequently segregate residents from the broader community, and offer limited input from residents themselves about daily life, routine, or even basic preferences — a model increasingly recognized as falling short of what genuine quality of life requires.

The gap between these two inadequate options — under-supported affordable housing or over-restrictive group settings — is precisely where so many families get stuck, searching for years for something that doesn't quite exist in their area, or settling for an option that meets some needs while leaving others entirely unaddressed.



3. What Actually Moves the Needle: Inclusive Co-Housing

Emerging models of inclusive, mixed-use co-housing are demonstrating a genuinely different path — one specifically designed to close this gap rather than simply choosing the lesser of two inadequate options. These communities combine appropriate support services with genuine community integration, housing adults with IDD alongside neighbors without disabilities in settings designed around independence, dignity, and authentic relationship rather than institutional efficiency.

Communities built on this model, including examples like Trailhead Community in Colorado and Faison Residence in Virginia, demonstrate that this approach is not merely theoretical. These developments show measurable success in resident independence, community integration, and family satisfaction — proof that a better model is achievable when it's intentionally designed from the ground up around the specific needs this population faces.

What makes these models effective isn't just better architecture or more thoughtful programming, though both matter. It's the intentional design around affordability from the outset, ensuring that quality, appropriate housing isn't reserved only for families with substantial financial resources — addressing the affordability driver of housing insecurity directly, rather than treating it as a separate problem from accessibility and support.

For Ohio specifically, where the gap between need and available housing remains substantial, building genuinely inclusive co-housing communities offers a concrete path forward — not a complete solution to every family's situation, but a meaningfully better option than what currently exists for most families navigating this search.



What This Means for Cleveland

The 40 percent figure isn't an abstraction to the families we talk to every week. It's the reason parents start asking about housing years before they think they should need to. It's the reason waitlists feel less like bureaucratic delay and more like a countdown clock. It's the reason this issue deserves serious attention from donors, policymakers, and community members who care about building a more equitable Northeast Ohio.

At Rising Heights, we're working to close this gap directly, building an inclusive, affordable co-housing community designed specifically around the needs this data reveals: genuine community integration, appropriate support, and affordability built in from the start, rather than treated as an afterthought. We believe Cleveland families deserve better than the false choice between institutional care and indefinite family caregiving.

If this issue resonates with you — as a family member, a donor, a policymaker, or simply a neighbor who believes in inclusive community — we'd like to talk with you. Reach out at natalie@risingheights.org/440-364-2975, or join our interest list to stay connected as we build a genuine solution to this crisis, right here in Northeast Ohio.