Special Needs Housing? Is it really that good?

[Nataniel A.]

I got a DVD set that talks about turning your investment properties into special needs housing. The projected numbers sound good (better than typical leases) but like anything, I'm sure there are downsides. Does anyone have any insight on this investment? I live in Los Angeles, CA in case that makes a difference.

[Nancy Roth]

Yes, the Medicaid rules have changed so they no longer pay for the housing component in the support services. Everything in Sidoti's model depends on Medicaid support that no longer exists. Medicaid now only pays for services, like caseworker support, therapy, maybe transportation, etc.--not rent! You must now form your leasing relationship with the disabled individual (presumably being coached by case workers and family). That way, if things are not to the person's liking they can keep their services but change their living space. They are not trapped in a group house, with their caregivers, and with people they may or may not get along with. In that scenario the person faces losing 100% of their government support if they move, or if they manage to hold onto their funding they have to start all new therapeutic and caregiving relationships, a highly challenging adjustment. No one wants to do that. 

I'm told best practice for residential arrangements for adults with disabilities is client-centered--not program centered, not nonprofit-centered. Everything Sidoti does is based on the old model. 

Also you know what's really egregious about the Sidoti CD set, which was recorded in 2001, is that he claims throughout the series that you need to listen to the last CD in the series to get his method for making contact with the service providers. "You can do it your way and fail, or you can do it my way and succeed," he says (paraphrasing) over and over again. In order to discover "his way" you need to break a seal binding that final CD to the jacket--and once you do that you can't return the set and get your money back (a cool $1000, y'all). Everything he puts out in the set of "free" CDs is designed to persuade you that nothing you've heard works without that last CD. 

I got the set from a couple of different friends. One got it in 2016, and had not yet broken the seal. The other had bought it in 2008, and had listened to the final CD. Listened to the free CDs in both versions, they were 100% the same content, no updates. Then listened to the final CD for his "secret" to contact the agency. You know what it is? Don't call the agency, write a letter. If you call, the person answering the telephone won't know what you are talking about and will lead you astray. 

FALSE. The series was recorded (and repeated and repeated unchanged for years) before the Internet had fully taken hold in the nonprofit sector. That era is over. 

Every nonprofit has a website now--it's essential to their fundraising effort. Now you go online to the website of the nonprofit, find the person you need to contact (in housing or residential services), and call him or her directly, or send a direct email. There's no gatekeeper at the front desk anymore. 

How do you identify the service organizations? Go to your state agency that funds service providers for residents who have been identified by the state as having disabilities. In Maryland it's the Developmental Disabilities Administration. They post the names of all the organizations that have state contracts to deliver services to the people that need them. There were about 200 organizations listed in my region of central Maryland. I went through them and pulled the 40-45 that mention housing referral services on their websites, and started calling them, one by one. 

Also I started going to meetings, signed up for information releases from DDA, began talking to people wherever I went. I soon found that Sidoti's model is completely outmoded. Medicaid has changed, and as far as I can tell, there is no "use it or lose it" funding in social services anymore, in fact, everyone is scrambling with funding shortfalls. 

Read the headlines, for heaven's sake. How do you suppose that wall on the Mexican border is going to be paid for? By deep cuts in services to the most vulnerable, that's how. 

You don't need this CD set, in fact, the CDs may do you harm. If you want to accomplish something you just have to buckle down and do the work. There is no short cut. If you decide to do something with this, I hope you will post an update.
Best regards,

Nancy Roth