For developmentally disabled, home living is well worth its cost

The Oakland Tribune

April 11, 2001

By Michele R. Marcucci

STAFF WRITER

Community care advocates say that developmentally disabled people have a right to live in the community, and that the quality of community life is far better than life inside an institution's walls.

If that's the case, then Bill Coffelt Jr. may be the prime example of what community life for the developmentally disabled should be.

Coffelt, 23, who suffered injuries as a child at Sonoma Developmental Center, was the lead plaintiff in a 1990 suit over conditions at the developmental centers. He now lives in his own, two-bedroom house in Folsom. The sunny bungalow, on a quiet suburban street, has a spacious kitchen with white tile counters, a sizable patio and a lush patch of backyard grass.

But unlike some of the other homes on the block, it also features windows covered on the inside in chicken wire, to protect them from Bill Jr.'s recent behavior episodes, and a patched hole in a living room wall.

Coffelt, who has a rare genetic defect, is supported 24 hours a day by a rotating staff of four people. It's a care arrangement known as supported living.

A similar arrangement is available to anyone who decides they want it and qualifies for such care in individual plans set up by family and care givers, Coffelt's father said.

Bill Jr.'s care costs an estimated $90,000 to $100,000 per year, his father, Bill Sr. said, placing his support costs between those at a developmental center, which on average are higher, and group home care, which would cost half that.

Bill Coffelt Sr. said he is trying to help another woman set up a similar arrangement for her child. But he conceded that often, families of the developmentally disabled don't know about the options they have.

"Parents, if they don't know they can demand something like this, they don't," he said.

Coffelt said he put a down payment of $40,000 of his own money on the $132,000 home, which he owns. He makes a $664.25 monthly mortgage payment plus taxes, insurance, garbage pickup and maintenance.

He then rents a room to his son for $300 a month, which comes from Bill Jr.'s $712 monthly Supplemental Security Income check. The state pays an additional $695 a month subsidy on the house through the Alta California Regional Center.

Money for Bill Jr.'s care comes from the regional center and Sacramento County, in the form of In-Home Support Services.

Bill Jr. is also covered on his father's health care plan, Bill Sr. said.

But the elder Coffelt is loath to put a price on his son's experiences. He feels his son has the right to live in the community, regardless of his disability.

And Bill Jr. is clearly king of this house. He walks around at his leisure, eats when he wants, and watches a tape of "Star Wars."

He's got neighbors who care for him too, the elder Coffelt said, leaving cookies on his doorstep, or candy at Halloween.

"Bill is a stakeholder in his community. People around there know him and react to him as just another person in the community," his father said. "It's kind of awesome."

His routine includes involvement in a day program, plus trips to the movies, the park, the bookstore -- where he enjoys books full of Superman and other comics -- and visits to at least one care taker's home to spend time with her family.

Coffelt said he thinks arrangements like his son's could mark the future of care for the developmentally disabled.

"This is a young man living as close to the way you and I are as possible," he said.

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