Disabled adults get back on their feet in ‘the safe house’
CAMPBELL — Ever since moving into Life Services Alternatives’ residential facility, Vanessa Rogers wakes up every morning in her cozy bedroom overlooking a beautifully manicured, tree-lined back yard and exclaims, “I happy!”
Rogers is one of five adult residents with special needs living in the spacious single-story house on Cambrian Drive at the border of Campbell and San Jose’s Cambrian Park neighborhood.
The house is Life Services Alternatives’ latest addition to its group of 11 assisted living homes throughout Santa Clara County that serve individuals with a range of conditions including Down’s syndrome, autism, epilepsy and cerebral palsy.
This month marks one year since the house opened and Rogers moved in, starting a new life. Before moving there from another assisted living facility, Rogers couldn’t walk and was confined to a wheelchair, having been born with cerebral ataxia, a neurological disorder that affects muscle coordination and controlling gait. She also has autism.
Though her speech is limited, Rogers has made strides and today is using a walker after decades of depending on others to get around. She can now navigate throughout the house with limited help.
Her mother, Cambrian Park resident and author Lynn Rogers, credits the home’s regular cast of caretakers with helping Vanessa literally get on her feet.
“She had hunched over so long in the other place that she was almost frozen, with not much strength in her back,” Lynn Rogers said in an interview.
With the help of a physical therapist and other specialists, Vanessa can now pull herself up on a pair of parallel bars in the garage and perform other exercises that improve her balance and overall coordination. Just seeing her daughter stand up was a welcome surprise for Lynn Rogers.
“I didn’t think she could be ambulated anymore,” Rogers said.
Vanessa goes to a day program where she labels, sorts and does other tasks for nonprofits, then returns home in the afternoons for rehabilitative work with the other residents. Though the group therapy is important, program director Susan Leritz said the main focus is helping everyone manage tackling normal daily tasks on their own.
“We’re not a rehab center, and it’s not all about rehabilitation,” Leritz said. “Our biggest focus is on independence and gaining independence, so this is one small piece of the program. If she can get up on her own, then she’s more independent.”
Day trips to the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden, Happy Hollow Park and Zoo and Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, and even overnight camping trips, enhance the sense of independence for Vanessa and the other residents.
Vanessa’s improved state of affairs can be traced back to the Lanterman Act, a state law passed in 1977 that guarantees services and support to people with developmental disabilities. Her mother said the homes that Life Services runs are the “flowering” of that seed planted many years ago.
“We look back at things like the Children’s Defense Fund, Lanterman Act,” said Lynn Rogers, “and to see that even in these difficult times—housing shortages, everything—that something like this could occur, it’s hopeful,” Rogers added.
For her daughter’s new life, Rogers also credits Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, whom she first met eight years ago as a campaign volunteer.
“My daughter may have had her handicap triggered because she lacked proper health care when she was little,” Rogers said. “When Secretary Clinton started pioneering the healthcare initiative and it came forward, it enabled Vanessa to have a neurologist.”
Rogers said she ran into Clinton again in May during the candidate’s campaign visit to San Jose. A person on Clinton’s staff recognized her and moved her to the front of the crowd, she said. Upon hearing about Rogers’ daughter, Clinton was brought to tears, she added.
“I really shouldn’t have met her,” Rogers said. “I said, I’m here because my daughter’s life is changed because of the healthcare initiative. She’s in this wonderful new place. She has a doctor. She has hope.”
Rogers, Leritz and developmental director Carlene Schmidt said public support has grown over the years for adult residential facilities, but private programs such as Life Services still struggle to grow. Finding adequate housing in Silicon Valley’s white-hot real estate market like the home where Vanessa lives and calls “the safe house” is a challenge.
The facility cost approximately $1.3 million, including renovations to make it comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to Schmidt.
“There just isn’t enough to go around,” Schmidt said in an interview. “Most adults with special needs live with their aging parents ... and, of course, they’re just exhausted from doing this for years and years and years.”
The women hope that an open house planned this winter will help increase public awareness of the need for more places like Life Services. It’s been encouraging for Rogers as she’s watched her daughter and other residents grow over the past year with Life Services, despite the work that still needs to be done.
“Flowering,” she said, “is a life that gives rise to hope and joy.”