But he communicates volumes. In the late afternoon light, Minchen sits in the living room spending time with his roommates and taking questions. Both hands nod up and down emphatically as he bounces slightly on the couch. Minchen is diagnosed with nonverbal autism and lives with four others in a San Jose home for adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities run by Life Services Alternatives, or LSA for short. LSA operates homes where disabled adults can live in a community with each other and their neighborhoods.
While the region faces a shortfall of services for adults like Minchen, LSA is pushing to open more homes in the Bay Area β including one this spring in Morgan Hill. LSA began in the early s, when news spread that the local mental health institution at the time, Agnews Developmental Center, was slated to close. The move left hundreds at the institution in limbo, so a group of parents of disabled adults banded together to create housing for their children.
In , they founded Life Services Alternatives, and with help of some state funds, bought their first homes. Since then, the group has steadily grown and, with the opening of a home this spring, will operate 16 homes serving some 75 adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities throughout the South Bay. Each home is based on a model of group living that seeks to offer the community members β the term for the residents of the homes β a degree of independence while fostering camaraderie.
Community members live at the homes full-time, and generally spend their days at work or at day programs. Together, members will share dinner around a dining room table, volunteer and go out on excursions together, and take part in the neighborhood at large through work and play.
The needs and the level of support vary widely from person to person. Many community members speak fluently or hold jobs in the community, while others may be nonverbal or require intensive medical care.
