ORLANDO, Fla. — It’s the season for graduations and new beginnings, but for some students who are starting the next chapter, it can be scary as they age out of services.
For students with disabilities, the cutoff for education in schools is age 22, and the resources for adult services and independent living are extremely limited.
Brandon Cook, 22, from Lake Mary, lives with his family. He loves his alone time in his room with his impressive DVD movie collection. Because of his Down syndrome and intellectual disabilities, his family can’t leave him alone for too long.
“It is frightening, it is like, ‘OK, what am I going to do with him,’” said Laura Cook, Brandon’s mom.
Laura Cook has been working for months to come up with a plan after Brandon graduates and can’t go to school anymore. “The journey for the transition has been incredibly difficult,” she said.
Delays in getting his benefits and a lack of housing have caused concern for the family as they work to find a place for Brandon to live, but time is up.
“I had to reach out to OCA, and they are my savior again. I have him back in adult services so once he graduates, he will be in a safe place, one he is comfortable with, he is happy,” Cook said.
Opportunity Community Ability (OCA) provides services for adults with disabilities to learn workforce, vocational and life skills. “It is an expansion of our Orlando program,” said Dr. Margaret Newman Thornton, a co-founder of OCA.
OCA is in the process of opening a new center in Longwood to serve more adults like Brandon.
“But our doubled capacity is not enough. We will need 10 OCA’s in the next year just to service the growing population, those aging out of the school system,” Thornton said.
The Cook family is relieved that OCA will help in the short term, but long term, the housing struggle continues.
“The availability is pretty much zero. You get on a waitlist, that is the challenge of this, and the need is massive,” said John Gill, the president and CEO of Quest Inc.
Quest Inc. provides several types of housing for individuals with disabilities in Central Florida. “It doesn’t matter the setting. It is just a tremendous need across the board,” Gill said.
Funding is the biggest challenge to keep up with the demand and make affordable options for families. Quest Village opened in 2017 and cost $12 million to build — it’s hard to imagine what a similar project would cost today.
“We have been in discussions with several developers about possibly, maybe setting aside some of what they are building, building smaller units. We have talked to various investors, we are always trying to work on it, but it is expensive,” Gill said.
Advocates say to solve the issue, it needs to be through legislation to allow more funding for housing and services, particularly for the 22 and up age range. “The restrictions have grown, and the service providers have diminished, and so the more barriers we have the less we can do what needs to be done, so it really must be discussed in some powerful rooms,” said Thornton.
For Laura Cook, it’s one room that really matters for her son to have a place of his own and a life full of opportunity. “You are their best advocate. You are the one who is going to make sure that they get what they need,” Cook said.
OCA’s new Longwood center will open for adult and youth programming on June 8. They will also offer individual therapy. The new building will help serve an additional 300 individuals in Central Florida.