In California, spending on adults with disabilities differs by ‘race and place’

Families gather in Costa Mesa last month to protest the California Department of Developmental Services and the Regional Center of Orange County. “We shouldn’t have 21 different ways that people are receiving services,” said Judy Mark, president of Disability Voices United, who is also the parent of an adult served by a regional center. But among adults living at home, Disability Voices United still found disparities in how much regional centers were spending on clients of different races and ethnicities. Fernando Gomez, a parent and co-founder of Integrated Community Collaborative, said “the system is just so hard to navigate.” Westling, whose association represents regional centers across California, said the group’s analysis had found that overall regional center spending on Latino and Asian people living with their families was “only slightly below parity” compared with white adults, and that spending on white and Black adults living with their families was similar. Disability Voices United also found “enormous differences” in what regional centers were spending to support adults who were living away from their families in their own places.