Finally tonight, tackling gaps in care for some of the most vulnerable residents among us.

We've covered the long waitlists and lack of housing for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

But the problem is even more acute for those with complex medical and behavioral needs.

Well, Rowan University's Sweeney Center for Public Policy held a first of its kind conference on the topic.

Whereas Raven Santana reports, advocates and state leaders shared their ideas and frustrations on the challenges families are facing.

Parents like myself, 65 and older, we're going to die and we're wondering, where is our child going to live?

Kids stay in the house.

If adults are directed the services.

Mary Hurley currently lives with her 31 year old son Sean, who has severe autism as well as bipolar disorder in her home in Medford, and a 15 over community.

She says she moved from Ridgewood to South Jersey after finding a day program that would best meet her son's needs.

Her, Lee says during that time, Sean also dealt with the loss of his father, moving to an environment away from friends, and began to show severe, challenging behavior stemming from that trauma.

Hurley says she felt the safest option for Sean was to have him home.

I don't feel that it's, right that myself and my son are locked in the house, and every time we go out, I have to worry about it.

Interaction where he might hit somebody, which could involve, you know, filing a complaint against him or, involvement in the justice system.

I mean, it's so complicated even to go out into the community.

It's a very lonely.

It's isolating.

And he doesn't have the life.

He doesn't have, a structure of activities and things that he could do because of his behaviors.

Hurley is not alone.

She joined other advocates, care providers and officials, including Paul Aronsohn, the state ombudsman for individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities, and their families at Rowan University's Sweeney Center for Public Policy.

A lot of folks age out of the system at age 21, where there are both, you know, federal and state, you know, requirements.

It's, you know, it's an entitlement, if you will.

There have to be some services put in place for folks 21 below.

Beyond that, though, it's it's not required.

And the good news is here in new Jersey, we have a lot of supports and services for folks 21 and older.

The problem is not everybody knows about it.

And so what we see in our office, whether it's cultural barrier, language barrier, just not access to information.

The conference focus on how to provide housing and services for the needs of the 5% of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, who also have complex behavioral issues and medical needs, making it difficult for them to find an appropriate place to live.

These individuals are often not able to live in traditional group homes, but their disabilities aren't severe enough for them to live in a state developmental center.

The answer for a lot of folks is somewhere in the middle, right?

It's providing different housing, you know, supports for different folks.

Recognizing that people with disabilities, like people with disabilities, have different needs, different preferences, and sometimes they might want to live in an apartment.

Sometimes they want to live in a house.

Sometimes they might want to live in the city.

Sometimes it might want to live in a suburban area or rural area.

We need to do all we can to sort of meet those needs.

One size does not fit all.

We need a variety, and we also need to recognize that people with developmental disabilities should have as many choices as we all have.

I live in and over 55 community.

No one told me, oh, there's too many of you.

Lisa Parles is both an attorney who represents families with special needs and president of Circle Haven, a non-for-profit that is working on an intentional community.

The community will be built on donated land near Rowan University in the township of Mullica Hill, which is going to be a mix of affordable housing for families and affordable housing for individuals with developmental disabilities.

So actually mixing our community small units one two, three bedrooms and the most and shared community center and says they now hope to work with legislators to help address the housing crisis for those with developmental and intellectual disabilities.

Parles says she hopes to see more intentional communities being built throughout the state in the future.

For NJ Spotlight News, I'm Raven Santana.