Gabriel Homes, a nonprofit launched by Catholics in northern Virginia, was a pioneer in helping people with mental disabilities. It was started by local residents who saw appropriate housing as the most pressing need in accommodating mentally disabled persons in their community. The organization opened its first group home in 1985, housing several developmentally disabled adults in ways that allowed them chances for independence, for work, and for shared social life. The costs of the residents’ medical care remained a problem, however, until the Arlington Health Foundation (a local trust with $350 million in assets) made a 1998 grant that allowed Gabriel Homes to hire three part-time health-care staff. By 2008, Gabriel Homes had expanded to seven homes, the number it maintains today.
- Gabriel Homes, gabrielhomes.org/About/Background.asp