LEO home provides independence, family for adults with disabilities

For adults with development disabilities, living independent of their parents and having a family of their own often seems an impossibility. An Issaquah nonprofit, Life Enrichment Options, is challenging that reality with the opening of its third caregiver home, which not only allows the disabled to live more independent lives but also to develop deep bonds of their own.

By Celeste Gracey • May 30, 2012 5:24 pm

For adults with development disabilities, living independent of their parents and having a family of their own often seems an impossibility.

An Issaquah nonprofit, Life Enrichment Options, is challenging that reality with the opening of its third caregiver home, which not only allows the disabled to live more independent lives but also to develop deep bonds of their own.

“It means a home,” said LEO Board President Nancy Whitaker. “It means a family.”

Nestled in the Issaquah Highlands, the house expects to welcome five people this summer. Unlike state institutions, the house blends into the neighborhood along 25th Avenue. In its entryway, a key ring holder in the doorway aptly reads “home.”

A donation of about $13,000 from the Employees Community Fund of Boeing Puget Sound helped furnish and decorate the home in warm tones. The main floor has five bedrooms, each large enough that residents can have a bed set and sofa.

A few steps past a large sectional sofa, an oversized kitchen table beckons community. From the kitchen, which has two refrigerators and two pantries, stairs lead up to a caregiver’s apartment.

The caregiver, licensed by the state, leases the home from LEO. She then collects money from Medicaid or from the residents’ paychecks, if they’ve found a job.

While some people with disabilities are able to eventually live on their own, she provides help to those who haven’t yet. In addition, she plans outings and stocks the home with food.

LEO began the project a year ago after buying a plot of land from Port Blakely as part of the development’s agreement to provide low-income housing. LEO used plans from its first home on Croston Lane, which was donated by Polygon, as a base for the project.

LEO had been saving the $350,000 for the project for several years.

The organization was founded 23 years ago when the state gave parents in the Issaquah School District grant money to start a group that focus on special needs.

The parents began by focusing on recreation and employment. The idea was to help get the students out into the community.

“Our main goal was to create a community where people with disabilities could live life to the fullest,” said Rose Finnegan, one of the founders.

At one time, people with developmental disabilities weren’t expected to live past their 40s and 50s, but modern medicine has extended their life expectancy. As a result, aging parents have struggled to take care of their children. So 9 years ago, they opened their first caregiver home.

When Finnegan’s own son decided to move into a LEO home, she found he became much more outgoing and better at negotiating for himself, she said. “He used to be my shadow.”

Having homes in the community meant they could stay in their community and not get sent away to the closest state bed.

So far all of LEO’s homes have been in Issaquah, but Whitaker hopes next to place a home in Snoqualmie.

The Employees Community Fund of Boeing gave $13,000 to help furnish this LEO home in the Issaquah Highlands. BY CELESTE GRACEY, ISSAQUAH & SAMMAMISH REPORTER