40 Years of Serving People with Disabilities… But We Need Help!

Here at ACR Homes, we have been proud to provide exceptional care to individuals with disabilities in group homes throughout the Twin Cities metro area since 1981. This year marks our 40th anniversary. But instead of celebrating, we are faced with a nationwide staffing shortage.

What is ACR Homes and what do we do?

ACR serves over 200 individuals with disabilities in 4-person group homes. We provide 24-hour care for some of the most vulnerable individuals in our society – people who rely on full care support, and often with extensive medical equipment such as g-tubes, respiratory equipment, and transfer devices or behavioral management support. We meet the residents’ physical, social, and medical needs. We order the medications, we attend the appointments, we shop for the groceries, we make sure all needs are met. Our residents depend on us to provide 24/7 staffing so that all of these needs can be met.

The question is, what happens if we can’t? 

So how bad are things?

Staffing has been challenging for years, but the magnitude of this crisis – which really is more like a natural disaster in scale and impact- demands an emergency response.

As the staffing crisis widened this Fall, we asked, in a worst case scenario, “What is the safety net for the vulnerable people we support – many of whom are also medically complex and fragile?” The response we received was essentially that other providers and county agencies around Minnesota are in similar or worse situations and the state has no other safety net for the people we serve. What safety net there may have been – like nursing homes – are in even worse shape and have no capacity to serve more people, especially those with complex needs.

There is no safety net for the 200+ medically fragile and complex individuals we serve at ACR Homes. 

Staffing Effects

Since Labor Day we have had 5000 direct care hours open per week—that’s an average of 90 shifts per day! We have responded to this workforce crisis by offering substantial amounts of incentive pay for our current staff, employing five recruiters who are working hard to find new staff, and offering wage increases, hiring and referral bonuses, and other enhancements to attract new staff. Program Directors, Residential Supervisors and RNs have all been working significant amounts of direct care, along with several office staff. Supervisors have been working long hours every week with very little time off. We have more than 14 homes without RSs. This has become unsustainable.