Developer Plans to Convert Avon House into Group Home

The Corporation for Independent Living is partnering with the Arc of the Farmington Valley, headquartered in Canton, to convert a single family, three-bedroom ranch-style home into a group home for four intellectually disabled adults.

“Most of the individuals moving into the house already live in Avon. They’re just relocating,” said Stephen E. Morris, executive director of the Arc of the Farmington Valley, also known as FAVARH.

Three live in Avon neighborhoods and one resides elsewhere in the Farmington Valley.

Robert F. Edmunds, Jr. to CIL Realty Incorporated on Dec. 14, 2011 for $200,000, which was less than the $344,230 he paid for the house on June 6, 1990, according to property assessment records.

This will be FAVARH’s fourth group home in Avon. The organization also has two in Farmington and one-a-piece in Simsbury, Bloomfield and Burlington. The homes are typically staffed 24/7, to give the adults assistance basic day-to-day tasks that vary by individual, whether it be shopping for groceries, preparing meals or going to the bank.

“The folks that live there are quite capable of living there fairly independently,” Morris said. “This is an opportunity for these adults to live in their community where they work and where they recreate and be a part of the larger community that they contribute to” by also paying taxes and volunteering.

The Connecticut Department of Social Services and Department of Developmental Services funding that already helps pay for the four adults’ cost of living will carry over when they move, Morris said.

The home, which Morris said should be done by late spring or early summer, will have four bedrooms and divided into two units, with three people in one of them and the fourth person in the other. The developers will need to meet fire regulations and add handicap accessible features, Morris said, and a new roof and windows will be installed. Steven M. Kushner also said the driveway will be widened to accommodate parking for staff and the four bedrooms will each be required to have separate entrances to the outside of the house as per building code requirement.

The Corporation for Independent Living filed paperwork with the building department this week, which is still under review. The developer does not need to submit an application to the Planning and Zoning Commission or present at a public hearing, Kushner said, because it already conforms with that residential zone. State zoning laws dictates that "any community residence that houses six or fewer mentally retarded persons and necessary staff persons and that is licensed under the provisions of section 17a-227" be governed under the regulations for a single-family residence.

“[The developer] wanted to make it clear this was not a group home for people with mental illness. It is not a group home for people with drug rehabilitation issues,” Kushner said. “It’s for people that are mentally retarded and can’t live on their own that need to live in group home.”

Morris said that while the four adults have been living in the community and FAVARH has been helping many other clients do so for years, the state has also been moving intellectually disabled individuals out of state facilities for at least a couple decades. One of the state’s larger institutions, Mansfield Training School was closed in the ‘90s, leading to a surge in integrating individuals into neighborhoods, he said. The only one left is . Many are being moved out of the Southbury location, Morris said, but some are staying put.

“That was very successful. What we’ve all learned from that is that living in a community is less expensive than these large institutions,” Morris said. “It would argue that it’s better, living in normal neighborhoods instead of isolation.”

Morris is available to answer questions at 860-693-6662, ext. 123.