COMPLEX PROVIDES FREEDOM; DISABLED EMBRACE INDEPENDENT LIVING

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- To live on one's own. It's a concept the Regency House has given Steve Vogelsang after 38 years of living with his parents.

"It's the first time I've ever been on my own," he said Sunday, sitting amid fellow tenants and administrators of the home. "I like it. (It's) a place to live."

Regency House is a 20-unit apartment complex that opened in December for people with mental, physical or developmental disabilities. The home, at 141 North Silver Springs Road, is sponsored by VIP Industries, which employs handicapped workers.

Six women and five men live at the home.

Vogelsang, one of the 11 tenants and a VIP employee, was at the home during its open house and dedication. About 100 people visited the home over the course of the three-hour event, said Program Director and VIP President Hilary Schmittzehe. Schmittzehe said the turnout had exceeded expectations.

Visitors Sunday also got the chance to tour VIP's group home, located adjacent to the apartment complex.

Among the visitors were Cape Girardeau Mayor Gene Rhodes, Marble Hill Mayor Shirley Cooper, and State Rep. Mary Kasten, R-Cape Girardeau.

Schmittzehe said that similar apartment complexes are being constructed in Marble Hill, Jackson and Perryville.

He said the Cape Girardeau complex is one of the first of its kind in Cape Girardeau and one of the first in the nation to be built with grant money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Residents are charged a third of their income to live at the facility.

Vogelsang said the home gives him more freedom and the ability to do more with his friends.

Like Vogelsang, Rose Mary Halter, an employee of The Lutheran Home here, said she likes the complex because she can live on her own. The complex has given her the opportunity to get away from her parents and to do what she wants to do, she said.

Added responsibilities have also come with living on her own though, Halter noted. The balancing of her checkbook is now her own task.

Sara Lowes, a co-worker of Vogelsang's at VIP, became the first tenant of Regency House on Dec. 12.

"I moved out because I wanted my parents to have time to themselves," she said.

"Me, too," agreed Vogelsang.

Regency Management Director of Housing Nancy Schlick said she believes a lot of the residents like being more self-reliant and not having to rely as much on their parents. "It's kind of (like) they have made a little community all their own."

Parents, however, aren't left out, she said. They are made just as much a part of the home as both they and the tenants want.

Tenants take care of their own apartments and are visited by support staff personnel for four to five hours, five nights a week, said Schlick. If the tenants have any problems, there is a list of people they can call. Plus, Schlick said, the adjacent group home has a house parent on hand 24 hours a day.