Last year, before the pandemic, I went to New Jersey and spoke to a woman named Wendy English. Wendy lives with several disabilities in a developmental center -- what some advocacy groups call an "institution." Wendy dictated the following letter.

"My name is Wendy English, and I am my own guardian. All my life I have been disabled but not as much as I am now. I have moved 20 times in my life. I lived at Woodbridge Developmental Center from April 30, 1996 until July 30, 2014. I had to leave because it was going to close."

"WDC was a great place to live. It had a great staff and lots of things to do. And they could take care of all my medical need, especially my stomach and my special diet. My mother did not want me to move because she knew how happy I was at WDC."

"The centers have a nurse on all shifts and a doctor. They can call the doctor on the weekends. I have depression and am bipolar. Sometimes I wanted to stay in my chair all night."

"I feel no group home can take care of me and all my needs. The doctor told me one time that it may be a couple of years before I will need a feeding tube."

"I got pneumonia in August, but I was able to stay here in my developmental center instead of the hospital. If I get sick again and go back and forth to the hospital, they will have to put a feeding tube in me."

"But I would rather eat. I like root beer and ice-cream. I hope I will always be able to eat. Here they watch the texture of my food, so it is not too dry."

"People like me in developmental centers are getting old. We need a lot more help now like nurses who are here when we eat, speech therapists who check the texture of our food, and a daily schedule."

"At one meeting before WDC closed, people (self-advocates) had me crying because I didn’t want to go to a group home. I don’t know why they want my home to close. Once I had a really bad time when they told me that I had to be out by the next year."

"My Dad died the same year. It was very hard for me to adjust. Here at Green Brook, I have the doctor and nurses to help me. I take a lot of medicine. I am doing well here and am much happier."

"Please don’t close anymore developmental centers and let people come and live here who want to. The people need this place. We are home. I would like it very much if you would come and visit me here."

"You need to see the people who live here and the help they need. Thank you for listening to me. I hope you come.”
-Wendy English

No one with a disability who has expressed his or her preference to live in what an advocacy group happens to describe as an "institution" should be forced to move out of that "institution" because an advocacy group happens to have an ideological objection to "institutions."

I went to Green Brook, and saw a lot of people who live with profound medical and behavioral challenges. They were cared for by loving and dedicated staff. What some people call an "institution," many of the residents call home.

I hope and pray the individuals at Green Brook's one certainty in this world -- the place they live -- survives the deinstitutionalization agenda of this administration. I hope lawmakers of goodwill recognize that a diverse population requires a diversity of care settings.

COVID hit congregate settings hard. But the pandemic will end, God willing, and places like Green Brook will still be an essential resource for a small group of people with profound developmental, medical, and behavioral challenges, many of whom cannot speak on their own behalf.

Those who want to live elsewhere should have the right to do so. But anyone with a profound disability who prefers a campus setting should not be forcibly removed from that setting. Wendy should not have to move out of Green Brook to serve someone else's ideology.