Spectrum News Feature

ALEXIS BELL

HOPE stands for Housing Options for People with Exceptionalities. 

Co-founders Dotty Foley, Ginny Dropkin and Orah Raia each have sons with intellectual and developmental disabilities or I/DD. They want their adult children, and people like them, to have an affordable and comfortable housing option outside of state-run institutions.

“Right now, we’re really living in an old paradigm of congregate living and what HOPE is aiming to do is move the model forward, that’s all," said Foley. "We’re looking at having a continuum of housing options and this inclusive community is one we want to move into the 21st century.”

In 2019, ANCOR Foundation found 6.7% of North Carolinians with I/DD live in state-run institutions, compared to the national average of 1.7%.

"Part of what we're doing here with HOPE is not just trying to find a bed in a community. We want to find a community where our sons and other people with developmental disabilities feel like they're a part of the community," said Foley.

Their vision is for the living community to be 25% for people with developmental disabilities and 75% for non-disabled people.

"[What] we would like to see in the community, is someone we call a community facilitator," said Raia. "And that's someone who would be onsite and would ideally encourage and do things to foster socialization among all of the residents."

These women want to foster a community where neighbors care for each other and look out for people like their sons. Currently, each of these families is responsible for most of the caretaking of their grown children. Part of their motivation is making sure someone is around to look out for their sons when they are gone.

HOPE just raised more than $70,000 in seed money. They still need support from policy makers, developers and housing advocates to make this happen.