Stay Informed

There is a quote making the rounds this week from Anne Hathaway — one of the most recognized actresses in the world, a person with every material advantage modern life can offer — that stopped us cold.

“Loneliness is my least favourite thing about life. The thing that I’m most worried about is just being alone without anybody to care for or someone who will care for me.”

— Anne Hathaway

Read that again. A woman with wealth, fame, and a full life is kept awake by the fear of being alone. Now consider the 7.3 million adults in the United States living with intellectual and developmental disabilities — people who, statistically, face that fear not as a distant worry but as a daily reality.

The Housing Shortage Is Real. But It’s Not the Whole Story.

The statistics about housing access for adults with IDDs are staggering. There are 7.3 million adults with IDDs in the United States. Only 2 percent live in settings that offer genuine community integration. In Pennsylvania alone, more than 13,000 people are on the waiting list for Medicaid waiver services — with an average wait of 10 to 15 years.

But there is a second crisis hiding inside the first one — quieter, less visible, and in some ways more damaging. Most adults with IDDs who do have housing live in congregate group homes that prioritize compliance over community, or isolated rental units that provide shelter but not belonging. Neither model was designed with the understanding that human beings — all human beings, regardless of neurotype — require genuine social connection to thrive.

The science on this is unambiguous. Chronic loneliness increases the risk of heart disease by 29 percent, stroke by 32 percent, and dementia by 50 percent. It is, as researchers now describe it, a medical emergency. And for adults with IDDs, who already face elevated health risks across the board, the compounding effect is severe.

What Parents Carry

Every parent of an adult child with an IDD knows a specific kind of fear. It surfaces at odd moments — at the kitchen table, in the car, at 2 in the morning. It is not the fear of today. It is the fear of after.

Who will be there when I’m not? Will she have friends — real ones, not paid staff, not scheduled activities, but people who choose to be with her? Will he have a home that is truly his — a place he belongs, a place he owns, a place that cannot be taken from him when funding changes or an agency closes?

These are not small questions. They are the questions that define the second half of parenthood for millions of American families. And for too long, the system has answered them with waiting lists, group placements, and the quiet assumption that independence and community are luxuries adults with IDDs cannot expect. We reject that assumption entirely.

The Antidote Is Not Just Housing. It’s Belonging.

Front Porch Cohousing was built on a different premise: that the answer to loneliness is not proximity, but community. That the answer to housing insecurity is not rental assistance, but ownership. And that the answer to isolation is not programming, but design.

Our model brings adults with IDDs into Coliving Homes in a Neuroinclusive Planned Community where they own their homes — whether through a purchased condo, a single-family residence, or fractional co-op ownership. They build real equity. They have a legal stake in their community. And they live alongside neurotypical neighbors in a mixed, intentional setting designed from the ground up to foster genuine connection.

This is not a group home. It is not a facility. It is a neighborhood — one where the architecture, the programming, and the culture are all oriented toward the same goal: making sure that no one has to face the fear that keeps Anne Hathaway awake at night.

Sources: Friendship Circle / Autism research consensus (79% social isolation); Ee et al., Autism Adulthood, 2019 (4× loneliness rate); Stancliffe et al., Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 2007 (50% chronic loneliness); Holt-Lunstad et al., Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2015 (health consequences); Anne Hathaway, Interview Magazine.

The Philadelphia Business Journal recently reported that a household income of $111,252 is required to afford a median-priced home in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The number is striking on its own. But set it against a different figure — the median annual income for an adult with an intellectual or developmental disability is between $8,000 and $12,000 — and the gap becomes something else entirely. It becomes a structural exclusion.

For the 7.3 million adults with IDDs in the United States, the affordability crisis is not a market correction. It is the permanent condition. And it is only half the problem.

Two Crises, One Cause

The affordability gap and the housing cliff are related but distinct problems. The affordability gap is structural: the income required to access the market is many multiples of what most IDD adults earn, even with SSI and Medicaid waiver support. The housing cliff is demographic: the caregiving infrastructure that currently houses the majority of IDD adults is aging out, and the replacement supply does not exist.

Together, they create a scenario that no amount of rental assistance or group home expansion can resolve. The only durable answer is ownership — a model where the home belongs to the resident, not to a program, not to an agency, not to a landlord who can exit the market when economics shift.

The By-Right Answer

Front Porch Cohousing was founded on a specific insight: the reason most neuroinclusive housing projects fail is not funding. It is entitlement risk. High-density congregate housing requires legislative variances, discretionary board approvals, and 36-month entitlement timelines that kill projects before a single shovel breaks ground. The political and community opposition to “group homes” is well-documented and often insurmountable.

Our approach is different. We specifically target sites where the zoning, infrastructure, and use-class precedent already exist — eliminating entitlement risk entirely. Hilltown Oaks, our first community in Bucks County, is a B-1 RR zoned parcel where single-family homes are by-right. No variances. No board hearings. No political risk. The PORCH℠ Framework is designed to move from Letter of Intent to shovel-ready in the time it takes most developers to clear their first zoning hurdle.

The same principle applies to larger-scale acquisitions. A former assisted living or elder care facility — like the Parkland Manor site we are evaluating — carries existing institutional zoning, licensed-use precedent, and the physical infrastructure to support the full lifecycle of our model: The Welcome Mat (transitional living for young adults), The Front Porch (equity-based Coliving for adults in their prime years), and The Hearth (neuroinclusive memory care for those who need it as they age). The right property for the right phase. Not every community will serve every need. The portfolio is designed so it does not have to.

State Capital Is Now in Play

Governor Shapiro's first-ever Pennsylvania Housing Action Plan, announced in February 2026, proposes a $1 billion Critical Infrastructure Investment Fund for housing development and preservation across the Commonwealth. The language is deliberately broad — designed to reach projects that repurpose existing infrastructure rather than build from scratch. Front Porch Cohousing's by-right model is precisely what this fund is designed to accelerate.

Beyond the proposed fund, Pennsylvania's Department of General Services maintains a surplus property disposition process through which state-owned facilities that are no longer needed by a state agency can be transferred or sold — including to nonprofits for community benefit purposes. Former DHS-operated facilities, decommissioned institutional care buildings, and surplus state properties are precisely the Parkland Manor-type assets that unlock full-lifecycle neuroinclusive community development. The Commonwealth has the properties. We have the model. The question is whether the political will exists to connect them.

What Ownership Changes

The affordability gap is real. But the deeper problem is that the entire framework for IDD housing has been built around tenancy rather than ownership — around programs rather than property rights. When a program ends, the housing ends. When an agency closes, the residents scatter. When a landlord sells, the community dissolves.

Ownership changes the calculus entirely. A resident who holds a legal equity stake in their home — whether through a full purchase, a fractional co-op structure, or a trust-held interest — has housing security that is not contingent on any program's continued existence. The equity builds over time. The community persists. And the “Life After Us” question that every parent of an IDD adult carries quietly — what happens to my child when I'm gone? — has a structural answer rather than a hopeful one.

Front Porch Cohousing is not waiting for the market to solve this. We are working the Governor's own Housing Action Plan, the state's surplus property pipeline, and the by-right zoning framework to build the infrastructure the market has failed to provide. The housing cliff is coming. We are building ahead of it.

Sources: Philadelphia Business Journal, housing affordability analysis 2025; National Council on Disability, Home and Community-Based Services report; Autism Society of America, housing gap data; Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency; Governor Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania Housing Action Plan, February 2026; PA Department of General Services, surplus property disposition process.