I've recently learned that there is a proposed redefinition in Rules and Regulations for Licensing Facilities and Providers which states:  "Group home means a congregate service providing 24- hour supervision in a community-based home having eight or fewer residents that provides 24- hour supervision by persons in direct care positions who do not live in the home."

I urge you to remove the stipulation that the direct care providers not live in the home. For the last 16 years, I have worked for L'Arche Greater Washington, DC, where our model of service provision is centered on people with and without intellectual disabilities living together, under the same roof. L'Arche's exceptional level of care is often attributed to the fact that the relationships between the people with intellectual disabilities and those without, whom we call "Assistants," is so stong. To make this proposed change would adversely affect the model of L'Arche.

Many of us who have made L'Arche our career and vocation have done so because we lived in the home with the people with disbilities for years. Though I now live outside of a L'Arche home, with my husband and children, my years living in the community formed me, because I grew from the gifts of those with disabilities with whom I lived. I made the choice to live in L'Arche because I wanted to learn from people with disabilities. Please allow people with disabilities to also maintain the choice to live in a place like L'Arche.

Sincerely,

Melissa Javier-Barry