Goal: Our state is enriched when Texans of all abilities and backgrounds can live together in supportive community settings.
Problem: Many Texans with disabilities, however, cannot choose to live in such settings because the Home and Community Based Waiver (HCBS) services and segregated housing developments often will determine where they can live.
Recommendation: The Texas Legislature needs to preserve the intent of HCBS waiver services and assure that services are provided in integrated community settings and that housing funds support the development of integrated housing in Texas.
Background: Home and Community Based (HCBS) waivers provide an opportunity for people with disabilities who receive services to live independently in the community—not in segregated settings. The development of affordable housing opportunities has been guided by policies that promote integration and are supported by the disability community. Others support efforts to create more segregated housing, often for the benefit of the service providers.
Justification: Texans with disabilities want the opportunity to live in their communities—in integrated and inclusive communities. They want normal, ordinary living arrangements typical of the general population.
The Americans with Disabilities Act requires that public systems provide services to people with disabilities in regular settings—even where the same services were available in a segregated setting.
Segregated settings restrict the ability of individuals with disabilities to interact with the community and support the “unwarranted assumptions that persons so isolated are incapable or unworthy of participating in community life…”1
Integrated housing and community based services are not only what Texans with disabilities desire; it makes economic sense for the state. We pay more when Texans with disabilities are unable to live in the community and must instead live in institutions.
1Olmstead Supreme Court Decision (1999). 28 C.F.R. pt 35, App. A, p. 450