Main Street Housing Complex Rockville
- Inspired by their son, the Copelands are building a facility in Rockville Town Center that will have apartments that allow adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities to live alongside others in the community.
- Ground broke in October on Main Street, a seven-story, 70-unit apartment building in Rockville Town Center that will reserve a quarter of its units for adults with disabilities.
- It is part of a groundswell of similar projects around the country: As the number of children with developmental disabilities increases — the autism rate in particular has skyrocketed in recent decades — there are limited services when they become adults. Funding for many programs stops at age 21.
- Living alone with a caregiver can be isolating and potentially dangerous:
- People with developmental disabilities have a higher risk of being sexually abused than the general population, according to the Arc, an advocacy organization.
- in the next 10 years an estimated 500,000 people with autism will enter adulthood, with almost 424,000 on waiting lists for residential services, according to Kim Musheno, vice president of public policy for the Autism Society of America.
- Parents in rural Wisconsin are planning an apartment building that would integrate their developmentally disabled kids with residents who don’t have disabilities.
- In Dickerson, Md., the Madison House Autism Foundation provides residence on a farm, and the Faison Center in Richmond offers adult residency programs; both were founded by parents of children with autism.
- The complex, projected to open in June, will consist of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, along with a cafe, a movie room, an art gallery, a teaching kitchen and a yoga and wellness center.
- The design will encourage hanging out, whether in a formal class or in a looser, nonstructured environment.
- The $30 million nonprofit organization will receive tax credits, along with private and public funding. The half-acre plot, across the street from the Rockville Metro, was sold to the couple by a friend; Copeland’s husband, a developer, waived his fees, as did the interior designers.
- A quarter of the units will be for adults with disabilities, with built-in features such as rolling kitchen islands to accommodate wheelchairs, or a mechanism that can automatically put out a stove fire.
- Three quarters of the units (including the special-needs ones) will be affordable housing, with the rest at market rate.
- Involvement in Main Street will not be limited to people who live there; nonresidents can become members and use the communal parts of the facility, and annual membership at this point costs $50 a person or $100 per family.
- “It’s a hub, it’s a community center, it’s a gathering space,” said Copeland, who lives in Rockville. “Whether you have a disability or not, you might want to join.”