The excerpt is taken from :
Falling off the Cliff Part 4: Life after death
By: Ronnie Polaneczky, STAFF COLUMNIST, Daily News Philly.com
December 1, 2017
State Rep. Stephen Kinsey and Norman Moore, who has lived with Kinsey and his family for 18 years as part of the life-sharing program. Photo by JARED WHALEN / Staff
For those … like Norman Moore, 60, the going is dicey without the close advocacy of others.
Born with intellectual disabilities to a violently alcoholic father and an abused mother unable to care for him, Moore was removed from his parents’ Southwest Philly home as a toddler. He ricocheted in and out of terrible foster-care situations and, as an adult was often homeless. Other times, he rented rooms in squalid boarding homes whose housemates were sketchy. By the time he was 44, Moore had never lived in one place for more than a few years.
“People stole my money and clothes – everything,” he says.
His luck changed 18 years ago when he moved in with State Rep. Stephen Kinsey (D., 201st) and his family (Kinsey, a single father, has four daughters). Back then, Kinsey was a supervisor at Horizon House, which provides supports and services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. He was asked to oversee the creation of the organization’s lifesharing program – an arrangement in which disabled adults live with qualified, unrelated adults who provide support in their home. At any given time, about 1,450 life-sharing households exist in Pennsylvania.
Moore, a Horizon House client, had developed a good relationship with Kinsey, and the men decided to try lifesharing. There were many ups and downs as Moore adjusted to living in a solid, stable household with rules and expectations and the Kinseys developed new ways to make room in their lives and hearts for Moore. Eighteen years later, they’re as deeply entwined as any loving, caring family would be.
“Steve’s like my brother,” says Moore simply.
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“He’s ours,” says Kinsey.