THE DEMAND FOR SPECIAL NEEDS
AND WORKFORCE HOUSING

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Adults with disabilities face many obstacles in finding suitable housing. In Wisconsin, persons with special needs—especially those in rural areas—often move away from their home communities, families and friends in order to find suitable, affordable housing. The limited housing stock for adults with different abilities is concentrated in large cities. Due to lack of appropriate housing, many adults with disabilities continue to live with their aging parents. Too often, they move out only when their parents die or become too elderly to care for them. The result is a crisis-driven transition that occurs without sufficient planning or needed supports. Young adults with special needs, just like other young people, want and deserve a practical path to live safely and independently in homes of their own.
"If you’re a single person with a disability who just needs minimal accommodations like me there are no options.... There’s options for the elderly, and low income families, but not us. I love my family, they let me live with them for free, and drive me around since I can’t, but that’s not what I want, and its not what I was raised to want. It made me so happy when I heard about your project."  --Shaun R., East Troy, Wisconsin