Building Mike a Home In Community

Read Mike's Bio at Coho Cohousing

Born in a small town in Southern Illinois in 1954, Mike was like most kids. He loved playing outdoors, climbing trees, playing sports and swimming in the river. He was a happy kid who grew into a happy adult. He took his love of the outdoors and channeled it into a degree in forestry. In 1977, at 23 and having just graduated from college, he started experiencing numbness in his hands, losing his balance and had a sudden change in his vision. After ten days of testing, Mike was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. MS is believed to be an autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system. With MS, the nerve-insulating myelin is damaged leaving scars and lesions. The symptoms can be moderate to severe.

Mike continued to try and live a normal life, adapting to the changes his body was going through. He got a job in forestry and continued doing all the physical activities he loved. His life changed and his MS progressed more rapidly than Mike could ever imagine. By age 27 he was walking with crutches, yet he found strength in himself he hadn't known existed. He tried continuing to run, bike and ski and became a master at adapting. While skiing, when his legs stopped supporting his weight he used outriggers; ski tips on the end of elbow crutches so he could keep flying down the hills. When his arms could no longer support his body weight, he used a sit ski, a plastic sled with small plastic poles to support his weight. And it was only when the cold became too much that Mike finally gave it up.

In 1986 he moved to Corvallis, Oregon and, in 1989, he pursued a degree in English as a Second Language. He taught for a couple of years. Then, in 1992 at age 37, Mike needed to stop work altogether.

He started receiving home care services, gradually working up to needing a caregiver 24 hours a day. Mike is now 52, has no voluntary movement from below his neck, and is legally blind. Mike is also one of the most optimistic people you could ever meet. With every loss Mike experienced, he found a peace in accepting the changes in his life. He turned his frustrations into advocacy work and is a passionate advocate for disability issues.

Mike has an incredibly positive outlook on life; however, like other adults with severe disabilities, he struggles with the isolation his disability can cause. "I can remember trying to maintain abilities such as running, skiing, biking, canoeing, and finally walking," Mike says. "While I was losing these skills, I was also losing my friends who were connected with these activities."

Over the past three years, he has been active in helping create a cohousing community, CoHo Ecovillage, in Corvallis, Oregon. Through Mike's years of participation, he has developed many solid friendships and been a significant contributor to the success of the organization. Ironically, Mike, like many people whose financial resources are limited due to physical disabilities, has always known he couldn't afford to buy a home and live in this community.

A Home In Community is a non-profit organization formed in February 2007 to help provide housing to low-income adults with disabilities. Our first campaign, A Home for Mike, is raising the funds to support an ADA-accessible unit in CoHo that will always be rented at subsidized rates to low-income individuals with disabilities . . . beginning with Mike! Donations made today will benefit Mike (as our first tenant), the neighbors who receive the gift of his companionship, and the many people with disabilities who will have the opportunity to rent this home at subsidized rates in the future.

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