I’m filing legislation to prevent abuse of our most vulnerable.
By Chris Turner
Dallas Morning News
https://www.dallasnews.com/
One ride-along was on a chilly spring morning in Grand Prairie, the other on a hot summer day in Arlington. Both times, my staff and I accompanied police officers and social workers as they checked on nondescript neighborhoods in and around my legislative district. On both occasions, we observed deeply disturbing scenes.
The addresses we visited are known as group homes and, in some cases, boarding homes. Each home may be inhabited by three or four individuals, often folks with intellectual and developmental disabilities, or IDD.
Some of the homes appeared to be doing a good job for their residents. Others, however, were dark, dirty and messy. One home that was without residents when we visited had aquariums and cages inhabited by reptiles, frogs and exotic cockroaches.
The caregivers on duty in many of these facilities did not seem bothered by the conditions people were living in, nor did they seem especially attuned to residents’ needs. Again, this is not every group home, but is the case in too many.
For the last three years, I have been working to strengthen the safety net for Texans with intellectual and developmental disabilities. I got involved in this issue when a constituent asked for help. Tragically, his son had been shot to death by his group home caregiver.
In 2023, I championed two measures that passed into law: requiring federal background checks for all workers and ensuring that caregivers found guilty of misconduct cannot continue to work in group homes. Those reforms were a good start, but more must be done.
At the risk of oversimplifying a complicated topic, there are two categories of homes in residential neighborhoods that provide services for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Group homes receive funding from Medicaid or Medicare. While these homes are subject to some government oversight, they are not licensed, have patchwork and flimsy regulations at best, and are overseen by a state agency lacking the resources to do so sufficiently. Caregivers at these homes are typically paid $10.60 per hour.
It was this type of facility where my constituent’s son was killed. There are documented reports of residents in these homes being injured while unsupervised, neglected to the point of malnourishment and financially exploited. Deaths in these homes occur far too often, and when they do, answers are difficult for loved ones to get.
The other homes are often called unlicensed community homes, unlicensed assisted living facilities or “bed and boards.” These facilities often advertise similar services as group homes, but do not take government money and are therefore completely unregulated by the state. In addition to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, residents may be elderly, sick or simply have nowhere else to go.
These are the types of homes that Regla Becquer operated in Arlington and Mansfield until she was arrested last year. Becquer is currently in jail, facing a charge of homicide in one of the 20 deaths in her homes.
Reports from her homes are horrifying. Caregivers allegedly exploited residents financially, using their credit cards and their SNAP benefits. Medication was denied or overprescribed, patients were prevented from seeking medical attention and residents were isolated from family members, the reports say.
Texas must not allow vulnerable people to be subjected to abuse, mistreatment and neglect. If the measure of a society is how it cares for its most vulnerable, we are failing.
First, we must increase wages for caregivers — they have difficult, taxing jobs. Currently, someone can earn more at a fast food restaurant than by caring for residents in a group home.
We must also ensure reports of abuse in these facilities are fully investigated in a timely way. That requires more resources for our overextended Health and Human Services Commission.
We must tighten laws to make sure they don’t allow abuse, exploitation, neglect and dangerous conditions. And we can’t let unscrupulous people get away with operating unlicensed assisted living facilities under the guise of a “bed and board.” I am filing measures to address these problems in the upcoming legislative session.
Our state has an obligation to provide basic health and safety protections for its most vulnerable citizens. We owe that to them and their loved ones.
Chris Turner, D-Grand Prairie, represents District 101 in the Texas House of Representatives.
This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas.
