The Broken Promise of Home For twenty-six years, Trudy, a single mother for nearly 30 years, carefully planned for her daughter Lauren's future. Lauren, now 41, has autism and an intellectual disability that requires 24/7 supports, and receives $1,300 per month in SSDI benefits based on Disabled Adult Child Benefits. Trudy's three-bedroom condo in Saratoga, purchased for $430,000 in January, 1998, is now worth $2 million. Under Proposition 13, her property taxes have remained manageable at roughly $9,000 per year. The plan was simple: leave Lauren the family home, the place where she grew up, where she feels safe, and where local services support her community-based living. At 70 years old, if Trudy lives another 10-15 years, she will have spent nearly four decades ensuring Lauren has a stable foundation for life, while the impact of the impossible tax burden continues to rise.  But California's Proposition 19, passed in 2020 and effective February 16, 2021, has shatter...

  What happens when turning 70 doesn't feel like reaching a milestone, but like running out of time? Yesterday there was a gas leak at my daughter's program, on my 70th birthday. Construction had pierced a pipe, the shut-off valve was stuck open, and everyone had to evacuate immediately. My 41-year-old daughter was playing vegetable bingo—something she needed to complete because that's how her mind works. When staff tried to get her to leave, she resisted. She had to be physically carried out, traumatized and unaware of the danger she was in. Later, I was able to help her understand that the people who evacuated her may have "saved her life," and she thanked them. But I lack faith that in a repeat evacuation, the same thing wouldn't happen. If there's ever a need to take cover, seek shelter, flee danger—this will be a challenge for whoever is supporting her. This is my constant, daily worry crystallized into one terrifying afternoon. I've been thin...