Mixed Use Housing Models - Lessons

Most families searching for housing options for an adult child with intellectual or developmental disabilities (IDD) run into the same two choices, and neither one feels right. There's the traditional group home — clinical, institutional, often disconnected from the wider community. And there's staying home indefinitely — loving, but unsustainable, and quietly built on the assumption that a parent will always be there to provide care.

What most families don't know is that a third model exists, and it's already working in communities across the country. It's called mixed-use, inclusive co-housing, and it flips the traditional housing model on its head: instead of building a place exclusively for people with disabilities, it builds a neighborhood where people with and without disabilities live side by side, as actual neighbors.

Two of the clearest examples of this model in action are Trailhead Community in Evergreen, Colorado, and Faison Residence near Richmond, Virginia. Neither is a perfect blueprint to copy exactly — every community has to be built around its own region, its own funding landscape, and its own families. But together, they offer something invaluable: proof that this model works, and a clear picture of what makes it succeed.



1. Trailhead Community (CO): Independence Built Into the Architecture

Trailhead Community sits on a mountain campus in Evergreen, Colorado, and was designed from the ground up around a simple but radical idea: adults with IDD deserve homes that look and feel like real homes, not facilities. The community includes individual residences, shared community spaces, and access to surrounding natural land — all built with universal design principles that support independence rather than dependence.

What sets Trailhead apart is its emphasis on skill-building as a core part of daily life, not an add-on service. Residents participate in cooking, gardening, and household management as part of the community's everyday rhythm, supported by trained staff who focus on coaching independence rather than simply performing tasks for residents. The goal isn't just to house people — it's to help them build a fuller, more capable version of their own daily life.

Trailhead also intentionally blends levels of support within the same community. Some residents need more intensive daily assistance; others live with significant independence and minimal support. Rather than segregating people by support level, the community is structured so that neighbors with different needs and strengths coexist, much like they would in any typical neighborhood. This mirrors something families often say they want most: for their child to live somewhere that doesn't define them entirely by their diagnosis.

Trailhead's location also matters. Being situated near Denver while maintaining a quieter, nature-oriented setting gives residents access to broader community resources — medical care, employment opportunities, recreational programs — without sacrificing the calm, supportive environment many families look for. It's proof that inclusive housing doesn't have to mean isolated housing.



2. Faison Residence (VA): Co-Housing as Genuine Community

Faison Residence, located outside Richmond, Virginia, takes the co-housing concept and applies it with deep intentionality to social integration. The development includes housing specifically designed for adults with autism and other developmental disabilities alongside market-rate homes for the general public — meaning residents with IDD are literally neighbors with people who have no formal connection to disability services at all.

This isn't simply geographic proximity. Faison was built around shared community spaces — gathering areas, walking paths, and communal programming — designed to create natural, everyday interaction between residents with and without disabilities. The philosophy is that genuine inclusion happens not through structured "inclusion events," but through the ordinary rhythms of shared community life: a wave from a neighbor, a conversation at a community garden, a shared walk to a common space.

Faison also addresses one of the most persistent gaps in IDD housing: affordability paired with quality. The development incorporates a mix of housing types and price points, recognizing that families' financial circumstances vary widely and that affordability cannot be an afterthought if a model is meant to be sustainable and scalable. This matters enormously for families who've found that high-quality inclusive housing models often come with price tags that put them out of reach.

Perhaps most importantly, Faison demonstrates that integration benefits the entire community, not just residents with disabilities. Neighbors without disabilities who choose to live at Faison often cite the strength and warmth of the community as a primary draw — suggesting that inclusive design isn't a compromise non-disabled residents tolerate, but a genuine amenity they actively seek out.

3. What These Models Teach Us &What We're Building in Cleveland, OH

Looking at Trailhead and Faison side by side, a few shared principles emerge that go beyond either individual project. Both models reject the binary of "fully independent" or "fully dependent" living, instead building environments that support a spectrum of needs within the same community. Both treat genuine social integration as a design requirement, not a nice-to-have. And both recognize that sustainable inclusive housing requires intentional planning around affordability from day one.

These aren't abstract lessons. They are exactly the principles we're building Rising Heights around here in Northeast Ohio. We believe families in Cleveland deserve the same thing families near Denver and Richmond have started to access: a real neighborhood, not a facility. A place where their adult child can build skills, form genuine relationships, and live with appropriate independence — supported by design, not isolated by it.

We're not simply copying either model. The founder of Trailhead inspired and guided our team in this journey. We're learning from both and more, while building something shaped by our own community's needs, funding landscape, and the specific families we're already in conversation with. That's the work ahead of us, and it's work we believe is worth doing carefully rather than quickly.

An Invitation, Not Just an Idea

If you've been searching for years for something better than the two options most families are handed — institutional group homes or an unsustainable promise to "figure it out" forever — know that better models exist, and they are not theoretical. They're already housing real adults with IDD, in real communities, right now.

We're building toward that same reality in Ohio, and we want families to be part of shaping it from the beginning at Rising Heights Housing — not just moving in once it's finished. If this resonates with your family's situation, whether your child is two years or twenty years from needing housing, we'd genuinely like to talk with you.

Live, Work, Play + Care like Rising Heights solve the systemic isolation and high costs of traditional group housing and care while creating a self-sustaining, vibrant community.

Join our interest list, or reach out directly at natalie@risingheights.org or Call us at 440-364-2975 .

The earlier you connect with us, the more your family's voice can shape what we build.