Lack of quality, innovative, supportive housing options for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities is a nationwide problem.

More than 7.4 million individuals in the United States have an intellectual or developmental disability¹. Around 75% of those individuals live with a family caregiver², and most of them are not receiving any formal services or support. In Wisconsin specifically, more than 25% of those caregivers are over the age of 60.

When we began our work in 2019, there were more than 4,700 people on the Wisconsin DHS waitlist for residential services in the next 12 months. This doesn’t include the thousands of kids with Autism, Down syndrome, and other cognitive differences who will graduate high school and other transition programs over the next decade looking for employment and a place to call home.

We are in a housing crisis for people with IDD in our country and in our state. We as a society need to come together to create models quickly to increase the number and variety of living solutions available in the marketplace today for persons with IDD.

¹Research and Training Center on Community Living, University of MN (2018)
²The Arc and CQL | The Council on Quality and Leadership (2019)