FAIRBURY, Neb. - Thanks to the statewide support organization Apace, three people with disabilities in Fairbury will now have a place to call home for as long as they choose.  

With a handful of regional officials and dozens of members of the Jefferson County community on hand, Apace unveiled its new group home on D Street in Fairbury in an open house on Wednesday afternoon. It was the first chance for both outsiders and the future insiders, including three full-time residents and a few live-in support professionals, to see the end result of a project that took nearly a year to complete.  

“Generally in the past we would buy a home and hope it was accessible, and that’s incredibly difficult to do. With this home, every facet was taken under consideration,” Apace CEO Matt Kasik said. “We wanted to do this once, essentially. We wanted to build a house that would last for years and years, where folks would find many years of joy and life without having to move around. To have it all together like this is really nice.” 

Fairbury’s newest domicile is the second of its kind. After taking about a year to hammer out the designs and blueprints, Apace installed the first of these accessible homes in Nebraska City late last year, and that’s around the time construction began on this second location in Fairbury. Up next, a third new house will be installed in Auburn.  

Part of the purpose of building something brand new is that Apace and its partners can ensure that these places have what their patients need to survive. This house is all on one floor, with handicap-accessible doorways, hallways, appliances, and bathrooms, including what they affectionately call a roll-in shower. There’s a large pantry that doubles as a storm shelter on the ground floor rather than the basement – it's often difficult to enter a basement in the best of times, even more so when you’re in a wheelchair, and even more so in the midst of a dangerous storm.  

“[We’re building] something that is accessible, something that’s inclusive, some place that an individual with a disability would be able to live in for essentially their whole life,” Kasik said. “Oftentimes, the homes that are [already] in the community have stairs, aren't necessarily accessible, so we’ve really prioritized that part to ensure that individuals can age in place, and not have to move when they don’t have the ability to do what they were once able to do.” 

This home in Fairbury was constructed from the ground up on a vacant D Street lot by Sendd Contracting starting around December 2023. Fast forward to October for this open house, and the construction is complete – and in a few weeks, the new place will be inhabited. Three Apace patients who all currently live together in a home on A Street will all begin to move into the house on D Street over the next few weeks, as will the support professionals who split time living in the house with the patients.  

“From the house that we’re in now to this one, it’s night and day difference. It’s gorgeous,” said Katie Throener, one of the designated support professionals who will live in this home three nights a week. “And our individuals could not be more deserving. They are amazing, and I can’t wait for more houses to come up. We did have one person that was supposed to live with us, but she passed back in May, so we’re going to honor her in this house as well. We’re all so excited to move in.” 

In addition to the wider doorways and the single-floor setup, this home includes three large bedrooms for the three patients to live in, and will also include a fourth bedroom that is designated for the support professionals, giving them their own space to sleep and work – something not many existing homes have. 

“Right now we’re all kind of sleeping on the couch, recliner, or an air mattress on the living room floor,” Throener said.  

There’s at least one, if not two, DSPs like Throener on site at all times, transporting, tending to, or simply spending time with the patients, all of whom were on hand Wednesday to check out their new digs and proudly give tours to friends, family and community members like the county commissioners and Mayor Spencer Brown. This is a place for the patients to live for as long as they want or need, but it’s also a place that these dedicated workers will spend a lot of time in – and now they have their own dedicated space within. 

“This is home away from home. I’m here almost as much as I’m at my own home. I sleep here, I eat here, I do laundry here. So it’s nice that we’re recognized in that,” Throener said. “We have our own private spot to go to, but we’re also very central, so we’re there when we need to be there. It’s great. I’m really excited.”