Does anyone know if any Aspie "Houses" were ever s

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Actually, it's one of the ones you already posted at the beginning of this thread:


...it's one of the ones that went nowhere.



Yep, I'm pretty sure I get what you mean and that we're on the same page about supports/services.

My view is that one of the key parts of any "Aspie housing" is getting the cost as low as possible without sacrificing quality, safety, access to anmenties, and access to employement*.

I'm always interested in ways to lower that cost. Trying to set up a private model outside of the "disability model" always has the problem that no one's done it yet and there is no market.

* As I've said in other posts, the last issue goes away if the property is aligned with "Aspie-friendly" businesses.

Agreed about the importance of lowering costs without sacrificing quality (I include all the things you listed as part of "quality")-- that's always an issue when trying to improve access to housing for marginalized groups of people, particularly if they have unique needs that may affect the suitability of potential properties to a more than average degree.



I'm curious, what counts as a "private model"? One that takes no charitable funding from anywhere, not even for startup costs? One that takes no government funding? Something else entirely?

I'm not sure that there is no market for it (but then I'm translating the word "market" into "people who would/might be interested", and I'm not sure if that's what you meant...?). I think what's missing is detailed schematics for alternative housing models -- without those, you can't even begin to measure demand because you have nothing to show people and ask, "Hey, what about his alternative to what's out there now?". ....It gets complicated, though, because if you really want to create a housing model that's designed to meet the needs of the broadest group of autistic people possible (not to mention how essential this would be in terms of any sort of funding or even just approval by relevent authorities -- non-standard/non-market housing generally has to comply with all sorts of different regulations and may need to be registered as something...at least in Canada, even ordinary housing co-ops need to submit papers to be approved as co-ops and they have to adhere to provincial and/or federal regulations), you have to do preliminary research about what people want and need in terms of housing and support and the more open-ended you make any kind of survey or discussion about something as complex and diverse as individual needs, the more challenging it might become to "distill" the responses people give you -- find the patterns or trends that help guide the creation of the housing model itself....Sorry that last sentence was really a paragraph -- did it at least make sense?

I understood you perfectly. In the US, you can do pretty much whatever you want (within fairly well known limits), as long as it's with your own money. I honestly think that this....reliance on government funding, while well-meaning, ties you to a model that would'nt work for many WPers, and I don't think it would work for many Aspies.

If I proposed an actual location for an "Aspie Co-op" on WP, the reaction I would get would most likely be laughter, and that's better than the response I'd get in public. Such a thing has never been succesful before, and there is not an example out there to show people that it would work.

The easiest way to get "Aspie Apartments" would be by buying a property through a mortgage. Unless you have substantial assets behind you (and therefore really would'nt need the loan anyway), a bank is unlikely to loan money for such a project.

i hate the concept of apartments because if some fool starts a fire either by smoking in bed and falling asleep, or leaving a pot of oil on the stove unattended, everybody in the whole building is screwed over.

First of all get ready there is no network of adult services for those on the spectrum unless you are in the 'developmentally disabled' end of the spectrum. I personally think Sheldon would be a dream roommate, no ambiguous issues to figure out. I hate having to figure out someone who has no idea of what to do to be ok with their moment. To me I don't find him controlling and relate to his perspective, most people don't tend to the particulars and therefore live in a state of chaos. He is all the way 'live' and baffled at why everyone is unable to grasp how to make life flow easier. People actually make so sense when they rely on the world to determine their existence. Find the seat where you are comfortable and sit there. No one is going to figure this out for you because only you know where it is you feel comfortable. I don't mean to be harsh, please don't take it wrong. If there is something you can't make happen then look for someone to help make it happen. But remember the older you get the less help there is available and eventually you will have to find how to do this alone.

I know what you mean. Government funding can be really problematic...it's not unheard of for progressive social things to be given grant money or even ongoing funding without screwing things up and totally changing the project being funded, but it is very rare.

I don't know, but I may have unintentionally made it seem like Canada has way more rules than it actually does...it mostly just comes down to ownership and the classification of property. It could get really complicated, but that doesn't mean it would have to be as complicated as I might have made it sound.

One issue is ownership....obviously somebody has to own the property -- whether it's a person or an entity (corporation, co-op, non-profit, whatever), and if it's just a single person who owns the property I think it would be much more difficult to set up and maintain an affordable housing model (especially if there were supports involved) than if it was a group or organization...for all sorts of reasons. But anytime you have group ownership, things get more complicated legally -- even if you just set up condos/strata housing. The group (co-op, corporation, condo association, non-profit etc.) itself becomes a legal entity, and there's usually some way it has to declare itself as such or be registered with somebody (as the case may be)...

And as soon as you start getting into social supports...well unless you have a peer support model (which I think would be awesome, but maybe too limited or impossible to maintain over time), having supports connected to the housing might change how the building/housing itself is classified and create more complications....I don't know enough about this stuff to know for sure if it would be an issue and of course it depends on where you live but it's somethng I wonder about.

I wonder if maybe one way to go about the funding part of it would be to work with non-profits and/or actually create one specifically to set it up.



I think it would have to be one of those projects that was acknowledged as sort of an experiment, because you can't prove something will work if it's never been tried. If you were creating a sort of proposal to educate people about the ideas behind it and its viability, you'd have to tie it to different models with similar ideas.



I think you'd need to look for alternative funding sources, or creative ways to build your own property -- and you'd probably need to find more than one source of financing.





You're right. And I hope it's not like this forever.

That is not difficult. Entities are set up everyday for many different reasons. If you're going to the trouble of buying and refurbishing a property, an entity is low on the list of problems.



I think there are trade-offs here. I personally think that the quickest and simplest way is best. My thoughts would be for an "Aspie Apartment", which is a traditional real estate deal, only with Aspies as the tenants. Get Mortgage, Buy Property, rent to Aspies.

I think that getting people on board will be a larger problem in the long run.

I guess it just seems complicated to me, personally...the whole thing seems really complicated to me.


*Nods*

If we're talking about Aspie-affilated housing (apartments or condos), there are multiple issues. In rough order:

1. There must be sufficient resources to start the process. A location must be selected, and sufficient interest shown in the location to set up a transaction (purchase).
2. Sufficient financial backing (mortgage/equity) must be obtained to buy the property.
3. Sufficient individual interest must be there to attract Aspies to the property.

That's probably oversimplfying it.

Over the years, I've come to the conclusion that it's not the supply (of housing) that's the issue, it's the demand side. Individuals have to have a reason to move. I've explored the desire to move in some threads....

How Tied are you to your current location: http://www.wrongplanet.net/postp5170532 ... t=#5170532

Would you move to be near other aspies: http://www.wrongplanet.net/postp5187810 ... t=#5187810

Moving is hard, particularly for those of us who have been negatively impacted by years if not decades of social exclusion and isolation. Moving is much harder without knowing that you have a support network waiting for you after the move.