Opening
The history of rights for individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD) is long and winding. While we have outlined the key national legislation and movements in the history section, it is important to know our roots.
It started with an act passed by New York state for the establishment of county poor houses in 1824. Before then, it was common for the poor to remain in their own community and stay in their homes or with members of their own families. Children took in their aged or sick parents. Those who no longer could manage to keep up their own home, or whose family members were all gone, were often taken in by neighbors who could then be reimbursed for the costs.
It was only when someone had no one to turn to did the Poor House provide their care.
However, researching into just how many people with IDD lived in these poor houses proves difficult, in no small part due to the labels used at the time.
The labels which were used are not socially acceptable or politically correct today, however it is what is found when doing research. People with IDD could fall under the following certain labels, and we would not know for sure if they were or not:
- Dementia – Loss of mental power.
- Idiot – A fool from birth; a human being destitute of reason or the ordinary intellectual powers of man.
- Insane – Unsound in mind or intellect, mad, deranged in mind; delirious; and degree of persistent mental derangement as distinguished from temporary delirium or wandering as is produced by disease, drugs or injuries. Such mental unsoundness frees a person from criminal responsibility. In certain cases, the individual knows what is right and wrong, but has an irresistible morbid impulse which renders choice impossible.
- Lunatic – Periodical insanity.
- Madness – Rage created by disease.
- Pauper – A poor person, particular one so indigent so as to depend on private or public charities for maintenance.
Arc GLOW does not condone the use of these labels, but it is important to know what they meant for the time. Especially as we will be quoting newspaper articles which will be using such terminology.
The County Poor Houses
Genesee County Poor House
Now known today as Rolling Hills Asylum, the Genesee County Poor House located in Bethany was where people who had IDD were sent to back in the 1800s and 1900s. On Dec. 4, 1826 the Genesee County Board of Supervisors met in Bethany for the purpose of establishing a county poor house.
It was suggested using an old stage couch inn of Bethany for the new Genesee County Poor House. Why it was placed in Bethany wasn’t known, but asylums were often built outside of the city. In Linda Schmidt’s book, “Bethany, 1800, 1900: The Poor House & the People,” she noted the main reason for this was land was cheaper outside of the city and the community would feel less threatened.
People with IDD were not the only individuals who lived there — alcoholics, single mothers and immigrants also found themselves in the poor houses.
One of the first people to enter the Genesee County Poor House — and to die there — was a woman by the name of Phebe White.
Her obituary, which ran in the Progressive Batavian on Jan. 29, 1886, read as such:
“Miss Phebe White was found dead in her room in the County House on Sunday morning last. She was 67 years of age.
“For 58 years she had been an inmate, never having spent a single night away from that institution. The County House was completed in 1827, and Miss White entered it at 9 years of age in 1828, thus becoming one of the first recipients of its care and protection. She was always idiotic, and for the past 10 years she has been totally blind.
“She had some musical talent and could whistle or hum a tune after hearing it once or twice. Her personal habits were filthy beyond all description, which made her a great care and burden.
“Miss White is a distant relative of the Ben White, who was hung in Batavia in 1843. Superintendent Hay, in looking over the books of the poor house, estimates her cost to the county during the 58 years at $7,000 ($228,655 in 2024’s money), and this amount would not begin to pay for the trouble she has made if an attendant had been hired to care for her.
“Why such persons are permitted to be a burden so many lives, while scores of beautiful lives come to an early end, is one of the mysteries that will not be solved in this life.”
White had been admitted into the Genesee County Poor House on Oct. 4, 1828 and born in Batavia; any and all information regarding her family and parents remains unknown. Schmidt brings up the tragedy of Phebe never being indentured or apprenticed, and noted she received no education while at the Genesee County Poor House because she couldn’t read or write.
Schmidt brings up some very good questions about Phebe’s situation;
- Why wasn’t she ever taken by someone to be apprenticed to do housekeeping, farm work or some other task?
- What were the circumstances under which she came?
- Did her parents abandon her?
- Was she an orphan?
“Didn’t someone care about her?” Schmidt questions. “Who would want to see a young child go to a place that was built to take in all manner of society from paupers to the old and infirm and the insane? Is it any wonder that she became what she did, a woman who could not even manage her own personal care?”
Unfortunately, this attitude was prevalent; looking at the newspaper articles and the state of the Genesee County Poor House and other poor houses in the GLOW region can only give a glimpse into what could have been the conditions individuals with IDD and other residents lived through.
The following are newspaper articles and key details and quotes which highlight the deterioration of care and standards of living of the Genesee County Poor House while we can assume individuals with IDD could have possibility found themselves there:
- “County Poor House and Farm” Progressive Batavian – Oct. 27, 1871
- “The Insane Asylum building is, however, a dilapidated concern, uncomfortable, insufficient and a discredit to the county. Twenty years ago, it was regarded as a rather superior structure, but it has become racked and warped by settling and age until the windows are loose, the plastering seamed and broken, the floor displaced and unlevel. Its capacity, too, is altogether inadequate for the proper accommodation of the number of inmates already there – in short this department of our County Poor buildings sadly needs attention from our county legislators.”
- “The Proposed Insane Asylum” Spirit of the Times – Dec. 28, 1872
- There was a vote on July 13, 1972 to spend $12,000 ($302,627.21 in 2024’ss money) to build a new “Insane Asylum” on the County Farm.
- There was a call to rescind the vote. (Done so Jan. 10, 1873)
- Reason 1: Location is bad.
- Reason 2: $12,000 will only go a short way to building an asylum of any size or proportion suited for the purpose. $20,000 ($504,378.69 in 2024) to $30,000 ($756,568.03 in 2024) would be more appropriate.
- Reason 3: Not enough “insane” in the county to warrant the money.
- Reason 4: Those that are in Genesee County can be boarded at the Ovid Institute or any other state asylum.
- “Our County Poor-House” Progressive Batavian, Aug. 25, 1876
- There were about 72 people at the house, from 20 to 25 being “insane.” (27.7 to 34.7 percent)
- There were no facilities for bathing in the house.
- “The Genesee Co. Poor House” Progressive Batavian, Nov. 19, 1886
- “The Board of Managers of the State Charities Aid Association respectfully call your attention to the accompanying special report of the Secretary, upon the condition of the Genesee County Poor House. The same state of affairs in this institution has been previously reported to us by other inspectors and this Association is compelled to endorse the conclusion of this report the buildings and means employed to take care of the chronic pauper insane of the county are not sufficient and proper for the time being for such purpose, and that there is no adequate provision for their proper supervision and safe keeping as required by law.”
- “Condemning the Poor House: Report of the Grand Jury – Bad Buildings in Case of Fire” The Daily News, June 23, 1887
- “The old building is all but suitable for the purpose. It is constructed in such a manner that in case of a fire it would be impossible to save the lives of the inmates. The asylum is equally badly constructed, and in the case of fire few, if any, of the inmates could be saved.”
- “Genesee County House. It’s Condition as Seen by the Local Visiting Committee. Improvements made the Past year – Good Sanitary Arrangements, but a Hospital Great Needed There – Some Statistics” The Daily News, Nov. 17, 1887
- “The pressing necessity for a hospital continues; for even with the new building, there is no provision for the isolation of persons seriously ill with contagious diseases, and no place that can be protected from the noise and confusion incident to the establishment.”
- “The number of violent insane is one; the total number of insane is seven. The number of insane removed during the year to state asylums was two. None of the insane have been discharged cured during the year. It is our opinion that no insane person can be cured here.”
- “As proper care and treatment cannot be provided for these unfortunates at a poor house, these pleadings must continue until every insane person committed to our County House is removed to a State Asylum.”
- “Over the Hill to the Poor House” The Daily News, Nov. 23, 1889
- “The proposition to bring back some of the insane paupers who are confined at Willard or at Buffalo should not be entertained by the Board of Supervisors. There are no facilities for taking care of them at the County House, as the place where they were formerly confined is not fit for a horse to live in, much less a man.”
Livingston County Poor House
Livingston County historian’s office and Livingston County Historian Holly C. Watson has been incredibly helpful in putting together a picture of the Livingston County Poor House. The historian’s office even has a historical timeline and information about the cemeteries, which can be accessed here.
From their timeline, the following dates are most relevant to our purposes:
- 1829 — The County of Livingston purchased approximately 136 acres of land on both sides of what was known as Canandaigua Road (Rt. 20A) in Geneseo for use as a poorhouse farm. The original building was located on the south side of the road with additional farm land on the north side. The poorhouse was ready to receive paupers by June of that year.
- 1849 — The Board of Supervisors approved plans to build a new facility on the north side of Canandaigua Road and to sell the 18-acre parcel on the south side.
- 1850 — A three-story brick building was completed. The central portion was occupied by the superintendent and family, and the men and women residents were housed in separate wings. The markers from the original burial ground were removed, but not the bodies.
- 1868 — In February, a fire broke out and five “insane” women confined to their cells in the back of the building were burned to death. Later that year, the second brick building next to the first building was completed to house people with mental illness.
- 1874 — Overcrowding made it necessary to add an addition to the 1868 building.
- 1878 — The county purchased an additional 33 acres of land, expanding the poorhouse and farm property to approximately 150 acres.
- 1892 — All people at the County Poorhouse who were designated as insane were taken to the Willard Asylum for the Chronic Insane, a state institution, by order of the State Commission in Lunacy. The name of the County Poorhouse (sometimes referred to as the County Almshouse) was officially changed to the Livingston County Home.
Orleans County Poor House
Built in 1878, the Orleans County Poor House was located on West County House in Albion. The three-story building built in 1878 accommodated 140. They were supported financially by the 155-acre farm that raised livestock and grew crops.
In “Overlooked Orleans” written by Matt Ballard, he wrote the Poor House opened a hospital wing in 1905:
“The building replaced the badly deteriorated County House, which was deemed obsolete by a committee consisting of John Hull White, Burton Keys, and Julius Harris. The committee reported that ‘the roof leaks badly’ and that ‘the walls appear to be infested with vermin, and there is no way to exterminate them except by building the walls anew.’
“In 1903, prior to starting construction of the hospital wing, inmate John Hurley committed suicide by cutting his throat. Varnum Ludington remarked that Hurley’s death was the second of its kind in two weeks; the need for a hospital to treat the ‘mentally ill and deranged’ was growing significantly.”
In another “Overlooked Orleans,” Ballard talked about some ledgers he found of those who passed away at the Orleans County Poor House. One of note was Solomon Pierson of Albion who was listed as an “idiot” from birth.
“The census schedule noted that he had a ‘large skull’ and was an inmate of the County Home. It was known locally that Pierson had a penchant for demolishing buildings and in a ‘fit of mania’ in 1906, he escaped from the County Home and proceeded to tear apart an old barn. He continued this work until the walls gave way, collapsing on top of him and killing him instantly; he was a step-brother of Alice Wilson who was murdered by her husband in 1887.”
Wyoming County Poor House
The Wyoming County Home was established in 1843. The first person to enter the Wyoming County Poor House on Sept. 1, 1844 was Sarepta Leno, a 20-year-old woman from Allegany county. The cause of her dependence was “idiocy” and in the remarks it was stated that “this woman is idiotic and very disagreeable, and was abused … by her parents.”
Being abandoned and left without any means of support was common for those with IDD.
To the State Hospitals
As the 19th century was drawing to a close, laws were put into practice removing those who were “insane” from the poor houses to institutions where it was believed they could be treated suitably, each for his or her condition.
This is in no small part due to Dorothea Dix, a 19th century activist who championed for the causes of the mentally ill and indigenous populations, and the underfunded county superintendents of the poor drew the state legislature’s attention to the unspeakable plight of the chronically ill.
The first state asylum was The State Lunatic Asylum at Utica. From 1843 to 1890, Utica served the entire state of New York, local residents were sent here during this time. It was the first of its kind in the United States to provide mental health care within an institutional setting.
The state legislature appointed Dr. Sylvester D. Willard to investigate the conditions in poor houses, jails and other places where those who were deemed “insane” were kept in 1864. Willard’s report of neglect, abuse and suffering led to the passage of a bill calling for a second state asylum which would become known as the Willard Asylum.
The following are the reports Willard gave for the poor houses in each of the four counties in the GLOW region (Source: Documents of the Assembly of The State Of New York, Eighty-Eighth Session, 1865, Volume 6, Nos. 199 to 112 Inclusive, Albany: C. Wendell, Legislative Printer, 1865, Pages 194-195):
Genesee County
“The building in which the insane poor of Genesee County are kept is of stone, two stories high, with ceilings of eight feet. The rooms are 8 x 10, with windows 2 1/2 x 4 1/2.
“It has a supply of water and two bath tubs, and is heated by a furnace in the basement. The number of insane during the year was thirty-five, but only thirty-two were in confinement at the present time. Nine of the number were able to do labor. Six of the males do out of door work. The others were severally amused in singing, reading, playing pennies, swinging, &c. Twenty were destructive to their clothing, and eleven required occasional restraint by the use of straight jackets.
“They are all required to bathe twice a week, and to wash hands and face daily. The institution has iron bedsteads fastened to the floor. Only one sleeps on straw without proper bedding. The food, which appears sufficient, is carried to each by an attendant on plates.
“There is an effort to separate the violent from the mild cases. The sexes are separated, and a person (not a pauper) is employed in their care. The rooms are clean, and the ventilation said to be good.
“The county receives recent cases. Fourteen cases were admitted in 1863, and seven up to August, 1864. The building is designed to accommodate thirty-five patients. One escaped during the year who was not returned, and six were removed by their friends. Fifteen of the cases were filthy in habit, and nearly all the cases are excitable. Attention is directed to the ultimate cure of each case.”
Livingston County
“There are in the county poor house of Livingston one hundred and fifteen paupers, of whom fourteen are lunatics. Six are males and eight females; eight are of native birth. They have been admitted at various intervals, since 1848. Eight of the cases are mild, and several are violent only by paroxysms. Five have been treated at the State asylum. Five males and four females are capable of labor.
“The amusement for the others is reading, and walking in the yard and grounds. Two require occasional restraint, either by straight jacket or by being shut in cell. The house has water, but no bath tub. The insane are required to wash every week, and hands and face daily.
“Each room and cell has a window opening out of doors. The building is heated by large coal stoves. All the rooms are warmed. The building is superior to most of those in the rural districts.
“Dr. D.H. Bissell says: ‘The treatment of the insane in our county house is all that can be desired for the insane confined there. They are mostly old and confirmed cases, not benefitted by medical treatment. They are generally mild in their behavior, with two or three exceptions, and they are only occasionally violent.’
“The inmates are fed, comfortably clothed, and well warmed in winter. The sexes are kept separated, and their care is not committed to paupers. The rooms are scrubbed every week, and the air in them is as good as can he expected where so many are congregated. They have clean under garments every week.
“The county does not receive recent cases, but supports them at the asylum at Utica. It has ten cases there at this date. All had shoes and stockings during the winter.
“The building was designed to accommodate twenty, but twenty-four have been confined there at one time. Two escaped within the year who were not returned. Those who are kept at the county house, are considered incurables and receive no treatment.”
Orleans County
“The oldest resident of the Orleans county poor house is eighty years old, and was admitted to the poor house in 1841. The whole population is sixty-five, fourteen of which are lunatics; eight are males, six are females; eleven are native and three of foreign birth. Eight are mild cases, three violent; seven filthy; eight have been treated in an asylum. Three are capable of labor; the others have no employment; all are at times destructive to their clothing; one requires restraint by handcuffs.
“The building has water, but no bath tub. The building is of wood; the sleeping rooms, or cells, 6 x 9 feet, open out of a hall 9 x 36. No arrangement for ventilation. There is a coal stove for heating the hall, but no attention is paid to uniformity of heat or change of air.
“There are no accommodations for the various grades of insane; the males are in one ward, and the females in another. The attendants are from the sane paupers. In this county recent cases are sent to the asylum at Utica.
“All have changes of under garments, and all were provided with shoes and stockings during the winter. The house is designed to accommodate seventeen, but, for the last few years, there have been but fourteen, at any one time, in it. The medical treatment differs nothing from that which sane paupers receive, and the moral management is nothing.”
Wyoming County
“No report.”
The State Lunatic Asylum at Utica
From 1843 to 1890, Utica served the entire state of New York, and as noted above in information above, local residents were sent here during this time. It was the first of its kind in the United States to provide mental health care within an institutional setting.
The hospital’s first director, Amariah Brigham, believed mental illness as the result of a bad environment. As a result, Utica gave patients spacious rooms, good nutrition, physical exercise and mental stimulus. Patients were also encouraged to participate in outdoor tasks, as Brigham believed “labor as the most essential of our curative means.”
He published his ideas under the title of the American Journal of Insanity, which would be eventually purchased by the American Medico-Psychological Association and evolve into the American Psychiatric Journal — which is still relied heavily upon today by mental health treatment professionals. Brigham also encouraged patients to use the printing press to publish The Opal. It was a 10-volume journal and offered an unprecedented view into the mind of the patients, a creative outlet and an opportunity for the patients to have their voices heard.
Brigham also invented what would be known as the Utica crib as he disliked the then-current practice of using chains to restrain patients. The Utica crib consisted of an ordinary bed with a thick mattress on the bottom, slats on the side and a hinged top.
However, it received intense controversy, as it was described as a coffin and that patients could die in the coffin, sometimes as a result of being placed in the Utica crib when they were having serious health problems. It wasn’t until 1887 when all the Utica cribs were removed.
Also, a common practice, as it was for the time, was lobotomies and electroshock therapy.
A lobotomy consists of making holes in the skull, removing some brain tissue and severing the frontal lobe of the brain from the thalamus. The front lobe of the brain controls:
- Thinking
- Planning
- Organizing
- Problem-solving
- Short-term memory
- Movement
Patients who underwent lobotomy developed epilepsy, dementia, incontinence, became apathetic or displayed inappropriate social behaviors, and other detrimental effects to their health including death.
Electroshock therapy (now called Electroconvulsive therapy or ECT) back then involved high doses of electricity administered without anesthesia, leading to memory loss, fractured bones and other serious side effects.
Eventually, the more chronic patients went to the Willard Asylum for the Insane at Ovid.
Willard Asylum for the Insane at Ovid
This institution was for the care and treatment of the “chronic insane poor” was located on the east bank of Seneca Lake, about midway between Geneva and Watkins.
The act of establishing Willard Asylum for the Insane passed the legislature on April 8, 1865, and the erection of buildings commenced in the spring of 1866. Before the establishment of Willard, the state had opened the Utica Lunatic Asylum in 1843. It had been established as a treatment facility, reserved for new, acute eases and was required by law to return to county custody any patient who was not discharged as recovered within two years.
Willard officially opened in 1869 as Willard Asylum for the Chronically Insane. On Oct. 13, 1869, a steamboat docked at Ovid Landing and several men led a deformed, demented woman down the gangplank; Mary Rote, the asylum’s first patient, had been chained for 10 years without a bed and without clothing in a cell in the Columbia County Poor House.
Three more patients, males, arrived at the dock that day, all in irons, one “in what looked like a chicken crate,” three and a half feet square. Many of the early patients had been considered difficult and were “quieted” by regular flogging, dousing and “pulleying” (hanging by the thumbs) in the poor houses. Within days of their arrival at the new asylum, however, they were bathed, dressed, fed and, usually, resting quietly on the wards
In 1877, Willard, at 475 acres (1,500 patients) was the largest asylum in the United States.
By 1890, when the name was changed to Willard State Hospital and its function enlarged to include acute as well as chronic patients, the census hit 2,000. Willard grew outward, gathering neighboring properties for farmland, and of course kept building, eventually topping 70 buildings large and small.
It was also in 1890 when Willard reduced its service footprint to Allegany, Cayuga, Genesee, Ontario, Orleans, Schuyler, Seneca, Steuben, Tompkins, Wayne and Yates counties.
In 1995, the then Willard Psychiatric Center closed its doors for treatment, but a portion of the 13-acre campus remained in use by the New York State Department of Corrections as a rehabilitation facility for inmates.
Craig Colony for Epileptics
Craig Colony for Epileptics was located in Groveland, Livingston County. It was initially a community/institution for people with epilepsy, established in 1896, before starting to accept other individuals with disabilities in 1935.
The following is a data for admissions to Craig Colony in 1945. As you can see below, 80 out of the 120 total (or 66.7 percent) of the people were labeled “idiopathic.” This is most likely where individuals with IDD who have epilepsy would be counted under. Also worth noting is there was only four who were not epileptic.
ARC Is Created
While it is now known as The Arc of New York due to a rebranding in 2017, when it was founded it was known as the New York State Association for Retarded Children or NYSARC. It was the eventual result of Ann Greenberg putting an ad in the New York Post calling on all mothers of children with disabilities to start a group.
It wouldn’t be until 1961 when the first of the three chapters which would eventually make up Arc GLOW was created; the Arc of Livingston-Wyoming.
It began with Phyllis Light, who served as the organization’s first president and remained an active member for several years. She advocated for services, education and vocational opportunities for children with IDD and worked to provide resources for families and teachers.
Next was the Genesee Arc which formed in 1964. It actually started with an ad in The Daily News announcing a gathering for area parents of children with IDD, and the first meeting was held in 1957. It was the first time many of these parents had the opportunity to speak candidly about family issues that were so entwined in their everyday lives.
The support and encouragement to speak up and provide social and educational experiences similar to other children in the community became the passion of their mission.
Henry Valerych, one of the Genesee Arc’s founders, said the group began raising money to help pay for summer camp visits to Camp Cornplanter in the Allegheny National Forest in northwestern Pennsylvania, the first ever camp for children with disabilities.
Finally, the last Arc chapter to form which now makes up Arc GLOW is the Arc of Orleans in 1970.
It started with Camp Rainbow and the Shenberger family donating land in Lyndonville to help create a place where children with disabilities had opportunities for fun and interaction. While Camp Rainbow was originally designed to meet the needs of children with developmental and/or physical disabilities, it was opened up to all children ages 5 to 21 in 1992. Since that time, Camp Rainbow has encouraged friendships and understanding among children with and without disabilities as well as promoting integration and inclusion.
Over the years, every New York state county would become covered by an Arc chapter. Ten years ago, there were 59 chapters covering every county. Now, due to funding cuts, there will soon be 33 chapters covering every county.
The Arc New York is the largest private 501c-3 NFP in the state and Arc GLOW is likewise for the GLOW region. Arc GLOW provides programming from EI to Hospice Care and offers services to support every interest and ability along the way.
Willowbrook
The most infamous institution for children with IDD, Willowbrook State School opened in 1947, designed for 4,000 people. At the time, it was the biggest state-run institution for IDD in the United States.
Disability Justice wrote on its website, “At its highest population, in 1969, 6,200 residents were living in buildings meant to house 4,000. Understaffed, overcrowded and underfunded, Willowbrook was little more than a ‘human warehouse,’ according to William Bronston, a physician at Willowbrook. The institution’s overcrowding fostered abuse, dehumanization, and a public health crisis. Hepatitis was so rampant that several researchers took advantage of the situation to use residents as participants in a controversial medical study in which residents were intentionally exposed to the deadly virus, without their consent, in order to test the effectiveness of various vaccines.
“In 1965, Senator Robert Kennedy paid an unannounced visit to Willowbrook. He found thousands of residents ‘living in filth and dirt, their clothing in rags, in rooms less comfortable and cheerful than the cages in which we put animals in a zoo.’ Kennedy went on to describe the institution as a ‘snake pit.’ The visit put conditions at Willowbrook into the national spotlight and the state of New York responded by developing a five-year improvement plan. However, after making minor adjustments, conditions at the institution quickly reverted to the inhumane conditions that had thrust it into public consciousness.”
That was until an exposé in 1972 by ABC News investigative reporter Geraldo Rivera showed millions of horrified viewers the serious overcrowding, dehumanizing practices, dangerous conditions and regular abuse of residents. The public was outraged and spurred parent advocacy groups to act in federal court.
That same year, parents of 5,000 people living at Willowbrook State School filed suit in federal court over the inhumane conditions at the facility. In 1972, the Willowbrook Consent Degree is passed. This and ensuing legislation led to the closure of developmental centers in New York state, established our current system of community supports, and laid the foundation of civil rights protection for people with IDD.
The following video provides a comprehensive overview of the history:
Into Today
After Willowbrook, several large pieces of national legislation are passed, the most notable being: Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1975, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, Olmstead Act in 1999, Health Care Decisions Act in 2003, and Disability Act 2005 in 2005.
However, it is the NY CARES Act passed in 1998 by Gov. George Pataki, which created placements for individuals seeking out-of-home placements in community homes and residences, which allows for people with IDD to live in their own communities.
This really allowed for local Arc chapters, including the chapters which would make up Arc GLOW, to expand residential programs.
In the newsletter, “Arc Horizons,” which was put out by Genesee ARC, it described the 5-year plan as a precedent setting move to virtually eliminate the residential waiting list for individuals with IDD.
“According to (then) NYSARC Inc. Executive Director, Marc Brandt, ‘The governor makes New York the first state to adopt a policy to eliminate a problem that has become a national issue,’” the newsletter stated in its fall 1998 issue. At that time in the Western New York catchment area, there were at least 600 people on a waiting list for out-of-home residential care. Many of which were adults who older parents could no longer provide adequate care.