An aggressive plan to multiply group homes

Ever since Reggie Davis left the New Lisbon Developmental Center in Burlington County and moved to a group home in Voorhees, his personality has blossomed, according to his mother.

In the smaller, non-institutionalized setting, Davis, who was born with mental disabilities, bonds with friends, works a job, and can go get coffee nearly as often as he likes, said his mother, Pat Davis-Johnson. He even adopted a new look, a mohawk.

"He now exudes his individualism," said Davis-Johnson, of Newark, N.J. "I'm having a little trouble with his choice of hairstyle, but he's my Reggie and I love him dearly."

Citing Davis' case as an example of the benefits of community living, an influential South Jersey lawmaker introduced a plan yesterday that he said would move thousands of people with developmental disabilities out of institutions and into settings such as group homes or shared apartments that are more integrated into everyday life.

Assemblyman Louis Greenwald (D., Camden) said his proposal would follow the lead of 10 other states that have largely done away with institutional care for people with developmental disabilities such as cerebral palsy, mental retardation and spina bifida.

His proposal calls for closing five of New Jersey's seven developmental centers and moving 80 percent of the population, more than 2,000 people, into community settings within five years.

"The time has come for us to end this warehousing of human life and give the patients what they require, and to give the consumers what they have asked for, what their families have dreamed of, which is the opportunity to live independently," said Greenwald, the Assembly budget chairman.

He added that community settings are far less expensive, costing $300 a day per person compared with $614 in developmental centers.

Greenwald said focusing resources on community sites also would help reduce a separate waiting list of nearly 8,000 developmentally disabled people who live at home but whose parents hope to see them move on to settings where they can get professional support and live independently.

The list can take years to navigate, worrying parents who wonder what will happen once they die or grow too old to care for their children.

Greenwald's plan won praise from advocates for the developmentally disabled, who said community settings provide a better lifestyle.

"Imagine if you were in high school, and you had detention study hall and you were never allowed to go home and you had to eat cafeteria food all the time," said Emmett Dwyer, director of litigation for Disability Rights New Jersey. His group has sued the state over both the number of developmentally disabled people in institutions and the number of those who live at home and are stuck on the waiting list seeking community placements.

At least one parent, and labor unions representing workers at the state institutions, worried that patients might not get the same level of care outside the facilities.

"What you're doing is limiting options," said a man at the news conference who did not identify himself but said he wants choices for his autistic son. The man, who left shortly after the event ended, said his niece has lived in the Hunterdon Developmental Center "safe and happy" for 25 years.

Even Davis-Johnson, Reggie Davis' mother, said her son was "blessed" by the care he received for 18 years at the New Lisbon site.

Labor leaders said workers at the state facilities are better trained and provide more support services, accounting for some of the cost differences.

"There's some patients that can thrive in the community and there's some who can never survive," said Sherryl Gordon, head of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees' Council 1.

Greenwald's plan calls for moving out 80 percent of the roughly 2,800 people at state developmental centers within five years. He did not specify which would close, but said workers would be "transitioned" into community sites.

The state Department of Human Services in 2007 set a plan for reducing the census at developmental centers, but Dwyer said it is falling behind.

According to DHS, 176 people have been moved out of institutions under the program, including 55 in the current fiscal year. The original goal for this budget year was 250 outplacements, but it was cut to 125 in the face of budget problems.

DHS Commissioner Jennifer Velez said the department's original framework would continue to guide its efforts. In a statement, Velez called Greenwald's proposal "an aggressive model and time frame distinctly different from our current plan."

Most of the nearly 40,000 developmentally disabled clients the state serves live in their communities, not institutions.

Tom Baffuto, executive director of Arc of New Jersey, which serves the developmentally disabled, said Greenwald's plan "sounds a little ambitious," though he said he supported the idea.

But he said he worries that there are limited slots in the community, and that the push to move people out of institutions could consume resources that might otherwise help trim the waiting list of people who live with their parents.

Green Brook Regional Center

91 residents*

Hunterdon Developmental Center

567 residents

New Lisbon Developmental Center

449 residents

North Jersey Developmental Center

404 residents

Vineland Developmental Center

447 residents

Woodbine

Developmental Center

489 residents

Woodbridge

Developmental Center

414 residents

* Facility serves the elderly

Source: NJ Department of Human Services