HomeShare

Jessie generates goals faster than her bedroom floor collects discarded clothes. Her newest goal (as if learning to cook, to clean the bathrooms, and developing a speaking/advocacy sideline were not enough) is to move out by Christmas. (See text message.)

At one point, as I was trolling the internet (because I have nothing better to do) I googled housing supports and options and saw a description of a home-share program. Common in many cities, this is where a person with a disability, once they feel they want to move away from their parents, can go and share a home with another family/couple/person. In order to qualify as a home-share partner (i.e., a person who has someone with a disability live with you in your home), you have to NOT be employed so that any job requirements don’t conflict with the time and energy you are supposed to spend on supporting the individual living with you. In addition, you get paid for it.

I had to read it twice, just to be sure: If you have a young adult with a disability, you have to pay a lot of money for services (because there aren’t enough to go around and meet people’s needs), plus you have to lose money because you can’t really keep your job because you have to teach and facilitate a good life for your son or daughter. But if you don’t have a young adult with a disability and you want one living with you, you have to agree to NOT work outside the home, PLUS you get paid. Hmmmm. What’s wrong with this equation?

Being ever hopeful, I thought of a solution.

I quickly called my friend Claire. “Claire, Claire!” I said. “If we all sign up to be home-share partners, we can all just trade children. We won’t have to try to balance work and teaching/managing our children’s lives, AND we’ll get paid for it!”

Claire wasn’t so sure. She thought that it would be the one time that the government paid attention to what was happening with our children’s lives. She could be right.