In the 1980s, Unified open its first residential home for people with disabilities to live together and receive 24-hour personal care assistance. Unified currently operates 43 community living group homes throughout Maryland, serving 150 individuals 21 years and older.
Today, Unified has broadened its residential services to include single-resident apartments located in our residential homes furthering Unified’s mission of fostering independence for the individuals we serve and allowing Unified to remain a leader in providing progressive and pioneering services for people with disabilities. By the end of July, there will be nine completely renovated apartments ready for occupancy with several others under construction. Apartments are in our community living group homes in Cumberland, Frederick, Hagerstown and the Baltimore area. These fully accessible apartments have been renovated with everything from new floors to totally remodeled kitchens and bathrooms as well as an array of safety features. They are being built-out on the lower levels of our community living group homes, with residential staff and services available to apartment occupants.
Amy Kreitz, President and CEO, shares how comfortable and attractive these apartments are and how excited our individuals are to have their own private space. She says that there has been a great deal of interest in these apartments, some of which are already occupied.
These renovations are costly and are being funded from our Residential Fund that has been growing over the past nine years with donations from our caring and generous donors. Leading this effort has been the Thomas and Nattans families whose daughter and sister Patricia has been a resident of one of our homes since the residential program started. To encourage support of our apartment initiative, the Thomas’ and Nattans’ are offering to match up to $10,000 donated to The Residential Fund.
Visit unified.org/donate to donate to the Residential Fund.
