Interview with Jeff Garrison-Tate of Community Now!

Community Now! is a Texas-based nonprofit that assists people with disabilities in leaving state institutions so that they may live into their communities. Some facts: Texas has more institutions than any other state. Currently, Texas institutionalizes more people with disabilities than New York state and California combined. · About 4500 adults and children are warehoused in 13 state institutions. · Texas has more children in institutions than any other state. · The Department of Justice has entered a settlement agreement with Texas and continues to monitor the institutions for numerous civil rights violations. · It costs more than twice as much tax-payer dollars to warehouse people in institutions compared to community-based services. · In Texas, state institutions for people with Intellectual and other Developmental Disabilities are titled “State Supported Living Centers.” This messaging is a misrepresentation. These places congregate large numbers of people with disabilities, often against their wishes to live in the community.