Community and Policy StudiesThis article reports on a multisite qualitative research study designed to better understand how the selected organizations support adults with developmental disabilities in community life. In particular, the study investigated the five characteristics potentially critical for service reconfiguration from a facilitybased residential services model (e.g., group home, supervised apartments) to a housing and support approach (i.e., supporting adults to live in their own homes). Semistructured interviews and observations were conducted with informants at a purposeful sample offive agency sites in New Hampshire, Minnesota, California, North Dakota, and Wisconsin. The results indicated the following target areas for further research and applied change strategies: the distinctions between the theoretical and practical frameworks of community integration and independent living, personal changes in the relationship of individuals with each other in daily life, structural changes on the part of agencies and service systems, and "community" changes in acceptance, stigma, and power relationships. The author discusses the implications of these findings for further service development and research in community livingfor people with developmental disabilities in the United States.

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