The Vineland Developmental Center will not close, but two institutions in Woodbridge and Totowa will close within five years under a binding vote taken by a task force today.TRENTON — A task force established by the governor and the Legislature announced plans today to close within five years state-run institutions for the developmentally disabled in Woodbridge and Totowa that house almost 700 residents and employ 2,600 workers.
Gov. Chris Christie and the Legislature established the group as a compromise in an effort to delay the closing of the Vineland Developmental Center, which the governor had initially proposed. As part of the agreement, the recommendations of the five-member panel are binding.
"Everyone on the task force feels the weight of this decision," Craig Domalewski, chairman of the task force who is a former senior counsel to Christie. "Everyone on this task force understands this decision will have an impact on real lives — from the residents of these developmental centers, to the staff who work there, and in the communities where these facilities are located."
The state, which operates seven facilities for nearly 2,400 residents, has closed only one center since 1998 at a time when most states are shuttering large institutions for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
A spokesman for the Communications Workers of America, which represents the state employees at the two centers, could not be reached for comment.
The task force voted 4-0 with one abstention to close the facilities, and is expected to approve a final report outlining other recommendations at a meeting next week.
After studying the possible closing of Vineland over the last six months, Domalewski said the task force concluded it would be too difficult for South Jersey to absorb the loss of jobs, and that the area wasn’t ready to provide a new wave of disabled people with housing and other services.
He said the facilities in Woodbridge and Totowa are situated in communities that are financially resilient, with more options for serving and housing the developmental disabled. In addition, Domalewski said the two centers to be closed are in need of costly repairs.
Nancy Thaler, a member of the task force and executive director of the National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities Services, said that for too long, New Jersey has been out of step with the rest of the nation.
Thaler noted that 12 states have closed all of their publicly run institutions, and the ones states that still maintain them operate much smaller programs with fewer than 16 residents in each.
"The evidence is so overwhelming people do better in the community," she said. "This decision is long overdue."
AIDING VINELAND
State Sen. Jeff Van Drew (D-Cape May), who sponsored the measure establishing the task force in an effort to spare the Vineland facility — which houses 271 women — said the decision was a relief to his district.
"This is good news for the hundreds of women with developmental disabilities who call the center home, for the more than one thousand employees of the facility and for the entire region," Van Drew said.
He complimented the governor for "keeping his word to the residents of New Jersey and to the families of individuals with disabilities that he would let this fair and open process determine the best path forward for the state."
The decision will affect 696 people with developmental and intellectual disabilities, most of whom were placed there decades ago, when doctors and educators routinely advised parents to institutionalize their disabled children.
nj.com-phone-app-pic3.jpg
Download our
free NJ.com mobile and tablet apps
to keep up with the latest New Jersey news, sports and entertainment.
The Woodbridge institution opened 47 years ago, according to the state, and the facility in Totowa in 1928.
Colin Newman, senior counsel to the governor, said all of the displaced residents will not be expected to move into a supervised house or grouop home. Rather, Newman said the decision would be up to the person’s treatment team and legal guardians, and could choose to move into one of the remaining centers Hunterdon, Green Brook, New Lisbon or Woodbine.
Alison Lozano, executive director of the New Jersey Council on Developmental Disabilities, a state advisory group composed of families and professionals, said she was pleased the two developmental centers were closing, but surprised that Vineland was not.
"The only way to provide adequate community living situations is for us to be almost forced or to be given the strong impetus to do it," Lozano said. "Five years is going to give the community adequate time to make good-faith preparations."
:
• Vineland Developmental Center residents file suit in federal court against Gov. Christie