The 1960's NYS Policy of Deinstitutionalization - Did It Work ?

Pearl River NY

29 April, 2022

5:05 PM

Description

My story is not intended to be a scholarly or empirical dissertation. It is the observation of a public servant [me] steeped for 50 years in the world of housing for people with "Special Needs". My observation and opinion is that the Deinstitutionalization policy has failed in New York City, but succeeded in Rockland County. The story begins with the expose of the inhumane crimes of neglect in the Willowbrook State School, which was built in 1947 in Staten Island and housing 6,000 adults and children with intellectual disabilities. The expose by Gerald Rivera's TV Programs in 1972 drew attention to the Letchworth Village built in 1911 in Rockland County [in the towns of Stony Point & Haverstraw], serving 5,500 intellectually disabled adults and children. At same time, the Rockland State Hospital built in 1931, [now known as the Rockland Psychiatric Center] in Orangetown housed almost 9,000 mentally ill adults and children. Take a moment to reflect on the above. New York State's second smallest County with 30% of which is park land was home to 0ver 14,000 victims of mind related disabilities ! The policy of Deinstitutionalization was being implemented very slowly in the 50's to the 60's vis a vis the mentally ill, but spiked with the intellectually disabled after the 1972 expose. This happened just a few years after the construction of the Palisades Parkway and the Tappan Zee bridges around 1955, which triggered a migration from Manhattan and the Bronx. Many of these folks were home owners for the first time But I am pleased and proud of how Rockland County in general faced the cultural challenge of Deinstitutionalization. One response was by parent-created Charities like Camp Venture offering family-sized community residences called "Group Homes", which incited a pandemic of fear by many home owners who thought the program would undermine property/home values as well as being in danger. This became a problem as you will read. One of my joys of life in the early 70's was to join leaders of compassionate care like Helen Murphy, a Sister of Charity, who ran the "St. Agatha's Home For Children" in Nanuet and Jack Lukens, a Psychologist and Parent of a Special needs child, in creating a first-time "Group Home" for very very young intellectually "disabled-from-birth" children. This was followed by Kathy Lukens of Camp Venture, Jack's wife, creating the first "Group Home" for adults on the property of the Sisters of Charity. It would wind up that I was the President/Chairman of the Board of Directors of Camp Venture for 42 years. Jawonio and ARC were doing the same. Collectively, these Not-For-Profit ultimately established hundreds of "Group Homes <->Community Residences" and probably a 1,000 beds. It changed the destiny of our intellectually disabled brothers and sisters. Everything about the family-sized residences was healthy and safer In the beginning of the era of "Group Homes", many families fought our vision. It got very ugly at demonstrations, at County/Town/Village/Hamlet meetings, in Court Rooms and street encounters in my case, because I became a Spokesperson for the vision. If it were not for Charlie Davis, a brilliant passionate lawyer defender of human rights, I might have had to spend a few evenings in either jail or Nyack Hospital. The saddest incidence was when a town government official at one of the demonstrations said publicly to me that"if you bring these people to ???, I will unleash our dogs on them." It was a fear and hate based on anger and ignorance. It was a war of hearts and minds. We won. As I gained experience and confidence in this solution , I joined the movement to establish "Group Homes" for our mentally ill by Co-Founding the Loeb House Charity in 1982, which now operates hundreds of beds in a spectrum of housing genres under its Executive Direct Tom Zimmerman. I think Loeb House operates the most community beds in Rockland for folks with mental health issues. This is the history of our efforts for our mentally ill and homeless Loeb House, Inc. + the Davis House or 14 beds + the Lukens House of 12 beds + the Monsignor James Cox Apartments of 30 beds + the Keahon House of 12 Beds + Supportive Housing of 63 beds + Five Respite Program of 2 beds ! A success indeed. At this point in time, Loeb House realized that everyone did not qualified for beds funded by the New York State Office of Mental Health, but also needed housing. My next step was to start housing programs for adults who are not intellectually disabled or mental ill, but are most likely to be homeless. In partnership with Tom Zimmerman, who was/is the Executive Director Of Loeb House and I created two new not-for-charities named "Joseph's Home", in memory of my late older brother, and "Rockland Homes For Heroes". This is the history of our efforts for our homeless. Adult Home: 86 Beds opened in 1995, which did not meet our standards Missing In America (MIA): 26-Beds opened in 1997 for Veterans, which also did not meet our standards We learned from these two experiences about the danger of oversize and we recalibrated. Maggie Conway House: 20-Bed opened in 1997 Fred Hecht Drive: 24 Units opened in 2002 Rockland Homes For Heroes, Inc. established in 2009 and opened in 2013 with 8 Permanent Affordable Supportive Apartments for "Homeless" veterans We are presently working to add only 14 new apartments. When we were awarded the Lease on the last 14 acres of the iconic historic "Camp Shanks-Last Stop USA" under the Federal Law that it could only be used for serving the homeless, we decided we would only serve homeless veterans so the property would be living memorial to the 1.3 million GIs who left from there to fight the nazi army. Reflecting on our experience with the MIA home, we decided to limit our number of apartments to a total of 22 apartments and turned over half of the 14 acres to the Town of Orangetown to build a surface storm water retention program to obviate the constant flooding of the Sparkill Creek. Ergo, we are working very hard to build these additional 14 apartments. I hope we set an example for others and we hope the Rockland family will help us raise the additional funding we need besides what the New York Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance is funding for the additional 14 apartments. Visit our web set - www.rocklandhomesforheroes.org