High Impact Living (HIL) addresses California's escalating housing challenges by championing a transformative solution: Cottage Home Cluster Communities.

This model offers a vital alternative to traditional institutional housing, promoting inclusion, autonomy, and belonging for diverse populations including older adults, neurodiverse individuals (such as those with I/DD), veterans, and others with long-term support needs.

Unlike conventional housing programs that often segregate individuals by diagnosis or age, our intentionally designed, small-scale neighborhoods are built upon three foundational principles:

Cottage Home Cluster Communities™ are intentionally designed so residents can receive Regional Center–funded Supported Living Services (SLS), Independent Living Services (ILS), and other DDS supports in their own homes. Instead of creating a private, proprietary program model, HIL uses existing public funding streams and lets individualized supports follow the person into a socially inclusive neighborhood.

This vision represents more than a response to housing scarcity; it is a direct response to isolation, fragmentation, and the limitations of earlier institutional-era models. HIL's Cottage Home Cluster Communities create pathways for people to age in place, thrive with minimal intervention, and build relationships that transcend service categories.

While not a singular solution to mass homelessness, these communities serve as a crucial pilot for reshaping public funding priorities. HIL advocates for shifting away from warehouse-style shelters and institutional group homes towards person-centered, community-inclusive models. By demonstrating that vulnerable populations can truly thrive in supportive neighborhood settings, these communities offer a proof of concept for broader housing policy reform. They challenge the conventional wisdom that only emergency response and crisis intervention are viable, instead proposing that preventive, relationship-rich environments reduce long-term costs and significantly improve quality of life. As successful pilots, Cottage Communities can inform new funding streams, zoning reforms (like supporting efforts with the Draft Adaptive Reuse Ordinance), and service delivery models that prioritize dignity and self-determination over surveillance and compliance. Ultimately, HIL's approach builds a bridge between emergency housing responses and the inclusive, stable communities that should be the ultimate goal of public investment in human services, strengthening connections and honoring the full humanity of all residents.

California's Department of Developmental Services (DDS) has built a strong inclusive-housing foundation through its Multifamily Housing and Set-Aside model, bringing homes for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) into larger affordable housing communities.

These developments are typically financed through tools such as the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) and supported by Community Placement Plan / Community Resource Development Plan (CPP/CRDP) investments.

The system successfully builds the unit, but cannot reliably deliver the tenant.

High Impact Living™ builds directly on this foundation by extending the same inclusion principles into intentionally designed, human-scale neighborhoods.

While DDS and LIHTC financing address the capital side of housing development, rents in these projects are still generally tied to Area Median Income (AMI), not to SSI/SSP-level incomes.

A voucher desert is a place where housing exists, but reliable operating subsidies do not consistently reach the people those homes are meant to serve.

Section 811 Project Rental Assistance is important—but it is project-based and program-limited, not universal.

A UHV complements HUD Section 811 by creating a reliable affordability layer across the entire housing system. HUD Section 811 creates affordability within selected projects; it does not establish a universal affordability platform across the housing system.

Without a common operating subsidy, mixed-population housing remains financially fragile. A Universal Housing Voucher stabilizes it.

California has already shown how to build inclusive housing through DDS Set-Asides and related capital tools.

Section 811 shows how deep affordability can work within specific projects.

A Universal Housing Voucher is the next step.

📄 Read the Full Policy Brief: State-Funded Common Use Housing Vouchers

Across California, many adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities still live in legacy campus and “six-pack” group home models. These settings often feature shared bedrooms, institutional layouts, and campus-style siting that isolate residents from community life.

This strategy complements new housing development by ensuring existing housing stock can also meet modern expectations for inclusion and aging in place.

High Impact Living™ serves as the experience-design partner — environmental assessment, design adaptation, and community inclusion planning.

Fairview Developmental Center is a once‑in‑a‑generation opportunity to convert a former developmental center into a mixed-income, mixed-ability community.

The Fairview Developmental Center, a site steeped in history, stands at a pivotal moment for inclusive reuse and mixed-income, mixed-ability housing. This initiative, championed by HIL in partnership with Affordable Housing Developer Hugh Martinez, presents a strategic advocacy to integrate meaningful inclusion for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) within the broader repurposing of the former institution.

This high-level proposal outlines the expertise and commitment of HIL and Affordable Housing Developer Hugh Martinez to support the main developer as partners or subcontractors. Our focus is on contributing to the Fairview site becoming a model for socially inclusive housing, with supportive services for I/DD residents embedded, accessible, and tailored to individual needs without isolating them from the broader community.

This initiative represents a strategic framework for what is possible through partnership, rather than a confirmed plan. It is a powerful and timely advocacy for positioning HIL and Affordable Housing Developer Hugh Martinez as critical partners for the future of Fairview, while honoring its historical ties to the I/DD community.

These are the main housing pathways for adults with I/DD and neurodivergent differences in California; HIL can help you understand which fits your situation.

While California regional centers are ultimately the hub for resources related to I/DD, we provide a public resource of curated housing options for families and advocates of I/DD and neurodivergent individuals in California. Navigating these options can feel overwhelming — High Impact Living™ is pleased to offer this overview as a free public service. Feel free to contact us for more detailed information.

High Impact Living™ specializes in the Cottage Home Cluster Community™ model but supports families and advocates in understanding all housing pathways.

Across the U.S., a small but growing set of intentional communities is designing long-term housing for adults with intellectual, developmental, and neurodivergent differences. High Impact Living™'s Cottage Home Cluster Communities™ sit in this landscape as one of the few models that are both socially inclusive (mixed‑population by design) and explicitly built on public–private financing.

Explore our strategic frameworks and solutions for inclusive housing development.