The Wave Nobody
Sees Coming
America's Hidden Housing Crisis for Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
A Special Report by Front Porch Cohousing
With Advisory Contributions from Shared Wellness
The Wave Nobody Sees Coming
America's Hidden Housing Crisis for Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
A Special Report by Front Porch Cohousing · With Advisory Contributions from Shared Wellness
Special Report · April 2026
Share on LinkedIn"We have built an entire industry to house and care for aging Baby Boomers. We have built almost nothing for the adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities who are aging alongside them — and whose parents are running out of time."
8.38M
Americans with an intellectual or developmental disability
710K+
People on Medicaid HCBS waiting lists nationally
56%
Adults with IDD receiving no formal services or support
40 mo.
Average wait for HCBS waiver services — more than 3 years
The Silver Tsunami Has an Infrastructure. The IDD Crisis Does Not.
America has spent decades preparing for the aging of the Baby Boomer generation. The senior living industry — 32,231 facilities, a $44 billion market, backed by Medicare and AARP's 38 million members — exists precisely to absorb this wave.
But there is another wave. Smaller in number, larger in need, and almost entirely invisible in the policy conversation.
More than 8 million Americans live with an intellectual or developmental disability. The vast majority live at home — not by choice, but because there is nowhere else to go. Most live with aging parents who are themselves part of the Boomer generation, providing round-the-clock care with no plan for what happens when they can no longer do so.
The senior living industry has 32,231 facilities. The IDD residential sector has 7,621. The gap is not a funding problem or a policy oversight. It is a structural failure — and it is accelerating.
The Transition Cliff: Where the Crisis Begins
Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), children with disabilities are entitled to school-based services through age 21. Then, at 22, it ends. The school bus stops coming.
Drexel University's Autism Outcomes research found that in the year after leaving high school, 39% of young adults with autism had no employment, no education, and no day services. They were simply home.
Every year, approximately 500,000 students with disabilities age out of the school system. Each one who does not find appropriate housing and services becomes another adult living with aging parents — adding to the wave that nobody sees coming.
Pennsylvania by the Numbers
11,837
Pennsylvanians on the ODP waiting list
4,770
In emergency status — unsafe or unsustainable situations
36,393
Working-age adults with disabilities in the 7-county SE PA region
Source: PA Office of Developmental Programs, Annual Waiting List Report, February 2025; SSA SSI Annual Statistical Report 2024
The Caregiver Succession Crisis
According to the Arc of the United States, approximately 700,000 adults with IDD live with caregivers who are 60 years of age or older. When that caregiver becomes ill, is hospitalized, or dies, the adult with IDD faces an immediate housing crisis — often with no warning and no plan.
An 80-year-old who can no longer live independently has a continuum of options: independent living, assisted living, memory care, skilled nursing. An adult with IDD whose 75-year-old parent can no longer provide care has almost none of those options. This is the Caregiver Succession Crisis — and it is happening now.
A Different Kind of Answer
Front Porch Cohousing, in partnership with allied practitioners, is developing a three-layer lifelong housing continuum — a sequence of housing options designed to meet adults with IDD where they are, at every stage of their lives.
LAYER 1
Transitional Living (Ages 18–25)
A rental-based bridge between parental care and independent community living, developed by Joe Gartner of Meridian Living. Life skills training, employment support, and peer connection in a supported community environment.
LAYER 2
Coliving Homes in a Neuroinclusive Planned Community (Ages 25+)
The core FPC model — homeownership, equity building, and genuine community connection built around the PORCH℠ Framework. Hilltown Oaks in Bucks County is the first community.
LAYER 3
Neuroinclusive Senior Living (Ages 65+)
Specialized senior living for adults with IDD aging into their sixties, seventies, and beyond. The part of the IDD housing continuum that does not yet exist anywhere in the country.
The Parkland Manor Vision: A 40-acre site in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania — the former Parkland Manor senior living community — has been identified as the potential home of the first full-spectrum IDD housing continuum in the United States: all three layers on a single campus.
Advisory Contributors
This report draws on the expertise of two nationally recognized practitioners in IDD services and neuroinclusive community living.
Christine (Chris) Martin
President, Shared Wellness
With nearly four decades of leadership in the IDD field, Chris co-founded Shared Support Inc. and has spent her career spearheading systems innovation, transition advocacy, and trauma-informed care programs across Pennsylvania and Maryland. Her expertise spans grant initiatives to enhance mental health services, transitioning individuals from institutional settings into community living, and designing programs for people with complex behavioral health challenges.
Alex Nocella
CEO, Shared Wellness
Alex brings expertise in counseling, community trauma therapy, and organizational leadership. Instrumental since 2015 in enhancing community-based services through clinical expertise in trauma therapy and person-centered planning, Alex also participates in the Lifesharing Program — a personal demonstration of her belief in the power of shared living and supportive community networks.
Pennsylvania NAP Corporate Sponsorship Opportunity
Pennsylvania's Neighborhood Assistance Program (NAP), administered by the PA Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED), is a tax credit program that encourages businesses to invest in projects that improve distressed communities. Front Porch Cohousing qualifies under NAP because our mission directly meets the program's affordable housing and community services criteria — and the Parkland Manor site, a former senior assisted living facility in Lehigh County that closed during Covid, sits in a qualifying area. FPC has already engaged the Lehigh County DCED representative and is applying for the FY2026–2027 founding round (application deadline: May 29, 2026).
Within the NAP umbrella, corporate sponsors can access three sub-components depending on the scale and duration of their commitment:
NAP — Base Program
65%
One-year commitment. A $100,000 contribution yields a $65,000 PA state tax credit — net cost: $35,000.
SPP — State Priority Projects
90%
For projects meeting DCED-designated state priorities. Affordable housing development is a FY2026–27 priority — FPC qualifies directly.
NPP — Multi-Year Partnership
90–95%
5+ year commitment, $50K/year minimum. At 95%, a $1M contribution over five years yields $950,000 in PA tax credits — net cost: $50,000.
The FY2026–2027 program year prioritizes Affordable Housing Development and Affordable Housing Support Services — both of which directly describe the Parkland Manor project. Contributions must be committed and contributor forms submitted with the application by May 29, 2026.
Learn about sponsorship opportunitiesFull Report
17-page PDF
Download the Complete Report
Includes all 9 sections, 4 data visualizations, PA county-level data, and the full Advisory Board contributor framework.
What's Inside
- The Silver Tsunami — What Everyone Knows
- The Wave Nobody Sees — The IDD Population
- The Transition Cliff — Where the Crisis Begins
- The Waitlist — A Crisis in Numbers
- The Caregiver Succession Crisis
- What Quality of Life Actually Requires
- A Different Kind of Answer (3-Layer Continuum)
- The Case for Corporate Investment
- What Needs to Happen
Media, legislators, and corporate partners: The full PDF is available for direct distribution. Contact [email protected] for a media kit or briefing.
© 2026 Front Porch Cohousing. All rights reserved.
"The Wave Nobody Sees Coming" · Special Report · April 2026
The wave is coming.
We are building the seawall.
Front Porch Cohousing is building the infrastructure that does not yet exist for adults with IDD. Learn how you can be part of the solution.