Emmaus to welcome first resident in independent home
By Jimmy Potts,
Record Managing Editor
Posted 11/7/19
The first of four planned Emmaus homes should go online sometime this fall with workers putting the final touches on a home in Truesdale. The homes are part of a plan by Emmaus Foundation to move …
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Emmaus to welcome first resident in independent home
Posted
By Jimmy Potts,
Record Managing Editor
The first of four planned Emmaus homes should go online sometime this fall with workers putting the final touches on a home in Truesdale.The homes are part of a plan by Emmaus Foundation to move residents at its Marthasville facility into independent living facilities.“Many of our clients have identified they would like to stay in Warren County after they transfer off of the Marthasville campus,” Executive Director of the Emmaus Foundation Lisa Drier said.“We worked really close with our clients and family members and try to meet their needs and desires of where they would like to live and Warren County has always been good to us.”The home in Truesdale is a four-bedroom house that will serve as a communal living space with four occupants sharing the home.Drier said Emmaus focuses on rooming clients with similar physical disabilities.Each home will require seven full-time employees with salaries ranging from $13 to $15 an hour for supervisors and $10 to $11 for staff members.The Boonslick Regional Planning Commission recently released a report that stated the Truesdale home alone would bring an additional $1.36 million to the area, which includes the purchase of homes between $600,000 to $720,000 and wages and benefits that would bring in another $759,000 to Warren County annually.“Warren County has always been supportive of Emmaus and our clients,” Drier said.“They were delighted to have us open some community homes in the area. We have a home in Truesdale, a home in Warrenton, two new homes in Marthasville and a home in Wright City.“We plan to open another 10 to 12 homes as we transition clients from the Marthasville campus. Not all of them will be in Warren County, some of them will be in Franklin, but we are just excited to grow and provide services to those that need it.”Due to HIPAA, which forbids releasing medical information without a client’s permission, Emmaus Director of Client Services Laura Davis could not say who will live in the home. She did say the first person to move in is from the area and a paraplegic.Due to his condition, and the condition of other potential applicants, the home is retrofitted with ramps and widened corridors to provide wheelchair access as well as a lift so that the future occupants can shower and have various other freedoms that may be lacking in a more structured, residential facility.Davis said the first client, who she referred to as Jonathan, is eager to move into the new home.“It’s exciting. Jonathan saw the house for the first time,” Davis said. “He is 22 years old and he does not even get a full shower. He only gets bed baths. He now has the opportunity to access the community, have a full shower, make friends, shop, he’d like to drink a beer, all of those good things.”Davis said it has taken two years to find Jonathan, who is from Warren County, a home that fits his needs and she cannot wait for him to open the door for the first time.“It is what keeps me going,” Davis said. “He was awestruck (seeing the home for the first time). He has been waiting so long. This gets him close to his family and he will get to see them on a regular basis. He wants to go to college and has hopes and dreams. This gives him total access to his home. He can enter and exit when he wants to, bathe when he wants to. He has a full choice of his living environment.”
Shown here is the specially designed home that will go to a Warren County man who will make the transition from Emmaus’ residential center in Marthasville. Jimmy Potts photo.
