The house is nothing to look at. It's a mid-century red brick bungalow, with a single driveway and two overgrown trees out front. It stands empty, almost all the time. But one weekend a month, three young men walk in the door and call it home. Each has a severe developmental disability. None will ever be able to live independently....
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Left to right, Deborah Pfeiffer, Moira Hollingsworth, and Susan Simpson hope to make the house they bought in Waterloo, Ont., into a permanent home for their three disabled sons. (Melanie Ferrier/CBC) The house is nothing to look at. It's a mid-century red brick bungalow, with a single driveway and two overgrown trees out front. It stands empty, almost all the time. But one weekend a month, three young men walk in the door and call it home. Each has a severe developmental disability. None will ever be able to live independently.
But with help from trained staff, Ian Hollingsworth, Kevin Simpson and Hayden Pfeiffer love to spend time there. Their parents are like all parents of disabled children: exhausted, worried about what will happen when they get too old to care for their kids, afraid of what will happen when they die.
Deborah Pfeiffer didn't want her son Hayden to languish on a waitlist for 20 more years before getting into a government funded group home. (Melanie Ferrier/CBC)Waiting lists for government-run group homes are endless. So they scrimped and saved and bought the house. The hope was that their sons would live there full time, but the cost of round the clock support is high. The three mothers have met with politicians, written to government ministries and spoken out at public gatherings — all in an attempt to keep their project alive. Now, after three years, they wonder if their boys will ever have a home of their own. Our feature documentary is called House of Dreams, and was produced by Melanie Ferrier.
