6 Planning for Group Homes

• Library: Group Homes: Strategies for Effective and Defensible Planning and Regulation (ABA) (2014 Ed.)

More than many other areas of planning and land use law, planning and regulating for group homes is a mixture of law and politics, with the politics—particularly local and even neighborhood politics—dominating the process. Regardless, the rule of law applies, and there are significant legal risks for communities failing to meet the need for group homes. Advocacy organizations for people with disabilities and group home developers recognize the effectiveness of Federal Housing Amendments Act (FHAA) litigation, especially when coupled with the right to recover attorneys' fees, and they will sue when local governments, for whatever reasons, do not enable housing for those who are protected under the law. Thus, planning and the planning profession have a critical role to play at all stages of the group home approval process.

It is therefore critically important that planners and municipal officials approach planning for and the siting of group homes deliberately and in accordance with the applicable laws discussed in Chapter 2. Perhaps most important, however, the planning for and siting of group homes must be done strategically and in accordance with principles of good planning. A proactive approach to planning that gets out ahead of the site-specific application, that determines the need for group homes, plans for appropriate locations of group homes, and anticipates and deflects community opposition has the best chance of succeeding in providing housing for people with disabilities while mitigating community concerns and avoiding litigation. A passive and reactive route that fails to plan for group homes or planning for group homes that does not account for the needs of people with disabilities leaves local governments with no choice but to deal with one-off applications, typically leading to serious and painful public conflict in the community, lost time in addressing the need, and costly litigation. This chapter focuses on the practical planning issues inherent in the group home approval process.

Determining Need

Determining the level of need that exists for group homes in the community is difficult. Planners and other local officials seldom have ready access to information on people with disabilities in the community, and stakeholders for supportive housing or group homes are often not present in the community, somewhat akin to the problem of providing for affordable housing when there is little or none in the community and those who want and need the housing do not live there. How does the conversation about meeting local and regional housing needs for people with disabilities even begin? Most communities do not consider the demand for group living facilities in their comprehensive planning processes, instead relying on group home operators to seek development approvals before confronting questions of how to meet the need for group homes.

The best place to start is at the beginning of the process of planning and regulation with a comprehensive plan. The comprehensive planning process in its simplest form is finding the answers to three questions: what do we have, what do we want, and how do we get it? In planning for group homes, communities should begin with determining the present and future need in the community and the region, to what extent it is presently being met, and what needs will exist in the future. Most states require that local governments have a comprehensive plan, but most states do not require that the regulations and decision-making under the regulations be precisely consistent with the plan. Having a comprehensive plan addressing housing for people with disabilities and committing the community to regulation and decision-making consistent with the plan is the critical first step in accommodating the needs of people with disabilities, minimizing conflict in the community, and avoiding legal challenges.

Determining Current Population of People with Disabilities

The first step in establishing the need for group homes is to determine where and what group homes exist in the community and their occupancy levels. It may be possible to determine the locations of existing group homes by simply researching where local approvals have been granted to operate group homes. Census data can also be used to determine where group living quarters exist in the community; census data can show information on group quarters populations at the census block level, assisting planners in narrowing down where group living facilities are located. A visual survey is also a potential means of determining where group homes are located, although such a survey may not be feasible in larger or geographically sprawling jurisdictions. Drive-by surveys will prove ineffective, however, where group homes have been successfully integrated into the single-family detached neighborhoods, because the group homes will look no different from any other single-family home. Understanding where group homes are located allows planners to identify locations that are presently under-served by group homes, which in turn can help reduce the likelihood that group homes will cluster in a particular neighborhood and overburden social-service-dependent neighborhoods.

Mailed or electronic surveys of group home residents and providers are also helpful for information gathering. While communities should take care not to request sensitive or personal information about group homes or their residents, a great deal of information can be gleaned from mailed or electronic surveys. For example, the survey could ask questions about the composition of the group home, the types of services provided, any known unmet demand for services in the community, and the home provider's and residents' preferences and needs relating to community services and locational issues. This information can then be used throughout the planning and regulatory process.

Another important resource for determining existing group homes and need for group living facilities is state offices responsible for licensing and providing social services and care for people with disabilities. Most states require group homes to obtain licenses. State offices responsible for licensing have extensive data on current locations and services provided by group homes. These state offices can assist in identifying underserved locations and communities, will have data on group home waiting lists and candidates, and will be likely to have data disaggregated by geographic region. Departments of state governments responsible for social services and mental health care have lists of patients, their locations in the state, and their housing needs. Planners should thus identify these state departments and contacts within the departments who can provide important data regarding planning for group homes, subject, of course, to privacy laws.

Addressing Demand

Understanding and analyzing the population of people with disabilities in the community and the region, and understanding that your local government may not be providing its fair share of the region's demand, is a starting place for determining need. Fortunately, the U.S. Census Bureau collects data on the disability status of respondents to the American Community Survey (ACS). ACS data provide a useful starting point for understanding the number of people with disabilities in the community, the nature of disabilities represented, and the general characteristics of the population of people with disabilities, which in turn can give policy makers a better understanding of the needs of the population with disabilities. This information, available for individual local jurisdictions, provides a basic database on which to build a needs-driven comprehensive planning element. Census data on people with disabilities categorizes disabilities as visual, hearing, ambulatory, cognitive, self-care, and independent living. Furthermore, ACS data on disabilities is further disaggregated by gender, age, race, education level, employment, and health insurance coverage.

It is true that, because the ACS data do not identify the capacity of the families of people with disabilities to care for them, or the degree of the disability, ACS data cannot be used to identify the precise demand for group living facilities. Data from the ACS are available at the census tract and block level, which means that planners can use census research to find—with some exactitude—locations where people with disabilities in the community are living. But again, where people with disabilities are presently living provides only a rough baseline. There may be a substantial unmet need to accommodate those who are in compromised living situations locally and those from the region who would like to reside in the community but cannot because of the lack of housing opportunities.

National, state, and local organizations may also have data on the community's population of people with disabilities and their housing needs. There are numerous organizations at the national and state levels, and many locally, advocating on behalf of people with disabilities and providing special services to people with disabilities and their families. These organizations will be likely to have at least general information on the numbers of people with disabilities and the nature of disabilities found in the community. Moreover, these organizations may have information on the proper amount of group living facility space that is necessary for communities of various sizes, and may have additional recommendations for finding out additional information about people with disabilities in your community. The following organizations are a few examples of national disability advocacy and support organizations:

American Association of People with Disabilities (http://www.aapd.com)
Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law (http://www.bazelon.org)
Disability Resources, Inc. (http://driabilene.org)
Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (http://dr

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