A problem solver for the disabled

For five years, Rosemary O'Donohue and her brother, Jim Clarkin, had been trying to find a way to renovate their family's small, aging home so that six of their seven adult siblings who have mild developmental disabilities could remain there.

"Our focus was to keep the family together," said O'Donohue, 59, one of 12 siblings in all. Their parents, William and Rose Clarkin, died years ago, leaving the Mineola home to the disabled children, now ranging in age from 50 to 65. Although the five non-disabled siblings -- including O'Donohue, who lives in Mineola, and Clarkin, 54, who lives in Albertson -- moved out, they were determined to keep the others from being split up to live in group homes. (One of the disabled siblings moved upstate.)

But finding the $300,000 for badly needed renovations proved daunting. Funding from government agencies was limited. And the Clarkins' unusual circumstances didn't meet the financial requirements of traditional lenders. So in early 2010, at the urging of the state disabilities office, O'Donohue and her brother agreed to meet with Charlie Hammerman, who, in his most recent career, is founder and president of The Disability Opportunity Fund (thedof .org), an Albertson-based nonprofit that provides technical services and financing to individuals and organizations serving the disabilities market.

Jigsaw work

O'Donohue and Clarkin were not optimistic he could solve their problem, but over the next two years, Hammerman worked to assemble the puzzle pieces that helped the family realize their dream. Nassau County provided one piece in awarding the Clarkins a $150,000 federal grant through its HOME Investment Partnership Program; Habitat for Humanity contributed free labor to tear down the old house and put up a new one; and Hammerman's fund offered a $50,000 line of credit to pay for materials not covered by the HOME grant.

"We worked as a team," Hammerman said. "It was a marriage of money, technical assistance and brainpower." The result: "It's not a group home," says O'Donohue of the new six-bedroom house on Westbury Avenue. "It's a family home."

For Hammerman, 49, of Hewlett Harbor, the Clarkin project represents the kind of typically intricate deals he thrives on. They bridge public and private sectors, blending the varied skills of his first career as an attorney and former Wall Street executive, with his passion for serving the needs of people with disabilities.

Historically, the needs of the disabled nationwide have been addressed by fragmented and inefficient methods, said Hammerman, whose daughter, now 22, has cerebral palsy. The aim of The Disability Opportunity Fund, he says, is to "apply private-sector methods" to create a more efficient overall system.

"Charlie is unique in providing a mixture of creative funding and knowledge of the disability field," says Gerald Huber, acting deputy commissioner of the state Office for People With Developmental Disabilities. Huber's agency often collaborates with Hammerman, especially in circumstances where people are seeking independent housing for older family members that fall outside the norms of current government programs. "In New York, we've focused on structured, supervised systems," Huber says. "Now, the focus is on creating a menu of housing options."

Other services

Beside the Clarkin home, The Disability Opportunity Fund has provided low-interest loans for an array of innovative housing projects in New York and beyond. In Darien, Conn., for example, the fund -- in partnership with another loan fund -- provided a loan to pay for about half the $1.1 million cost of building a cottage for six unrelated disabled adults (the parents of the six adults held fundraisers to pay for the other half). And in Westchester, the fund provided a $525,000 bridge loan to a social services agency to buy a home for four young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder who were "aging out" of their residential educational programs.

Hammerman and Huber agree that public-private partnerships also can provide a source of new funding streams for low- and moderate-income families, particularly at a time of sharp government cutbacks. But it's rarely an easy process. Each project requires intensive work and negotiations, some creative risk-taking and often a bit of luck.

As a daily reminder of the challenge he has given himself, Hammerman has two quotes by Albert Einstein next to his office computer. The first: "In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity." The second: "It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer."

Indeed, Hammerman has stayed with disabilities problems a long time. It started with his uncle, Burton Blatt, a pioneering advocate for the disabled and national leader in special education. Blatt and photographer Fred Kaplan became widely known for their 1966 book "Christmas in Purgatory," an explosive portrait of life in this country's mental institutions that helped lead to the closing of facilities like the Willowbrook State School on Staten Island.

Hammerman’s path

Hammerman began his professional career as an attorney. After stints at a large law firm and the U.S. attorney's office, Hammerman joined Merrill Lynch & Co., where his father, Stephen, served as general counsel. He spent 12 years at Merrill Lynch in various executive positions, but in the mid-1990s, his memories of Uncle Burt began to take on new meaning. By then, Hammerman had a young daughter with cerebral palsy who was attending the Henry Viscardi School for disabled students in Albertson. He remembers looking around at other busy, working parents and thinking, "How will these people be able to figure out the system?"

Hammerman began putting together programs to help other employees at Merrill navigate the often bewildering world of disabilities services, and spearheaded the creation of its Disability Awareness Professional Network in the firm's New York headquarters. "I became the 'Information Booth' on disabilities," he said.

As interest grew, Hammerman questioned whether a private equity fund could be created solely for the support of disabilities-related efforts. Merrill officials told him, yes, he could create a Community Development Financing Institution, or CDFI, a specialized financial entity certified by the U.S. Treasury Department that lends and makes equity investments in markets that are often underserved by traditional lenders. And they encouraged Hammerman to do so -- because no one else was.

In 2005, he left Merrill Lynch for Syracuse University to become managing director of the Burton Blatt Institute, whose mission is to advance the participation of persons with disabilities in a global society. (Blatt, who died in 1985, also was dean of the university's School of Education.) Then, in September 2007, Hammerman founded The Disability Opportunity Fund, along with his wife, Nanci Freiman, a vocational rehabilitation expert who oversees its day-to-day administration.

During the past five years, Hammerman has been building an asset base through grants and loans from corporations, foundations, government agencies and nonprofits. With current assets of nearly $7 million, the fund has issued 19 loans. "He's got a niche," says Melanie Stern, coordinator of the New York State Coalition of CDFIs. "From the get-go," she says, "Charlie really understood how to use a CDFI, and he's been really good at partnering with other organizations."

Looking ahead

Hammerman and other advocates for people with disabilities believe that future housing options will be shaped more by the disabled themselves and their families.

"Many people don't want a 24/7 [supervised] environment. They don't feel that certified residences or group homes fit their need," says Kathleen Quinn, director of Medicaid services coordination for the Long Island Advocacy Center, a nonprofit agency devoted to protecting the rights of individuals with disabilities. In some cases, Quinn says, parents want to contribute to the housing costs. They help with a down payment for their non-disabled adult children, so why not for their child with a disability?

Whatever the housing provisions, the key to a successful deal is that the family controls the project as much as possible, Hammerman says. "This is the last barrier for families -- they get to call the shots."

For the Clarkins, this means their home is owned by a trust, with three of the siblings acting as trustees. All five non-disabled siblings serve as guardians and caretakers. O'Donohue, a retired financial analyst, handles the monthly bills. Each sibling living in the home has an outside job, as well as assigned chores. And for the first time, they all have their own room.

In the coming months, Hammerman plans to launch a high-profile campaign he calls "Wait No More-LI." The goal is to help the state reduce -- and eliminate -- its waiting list of 2,400 Long Islanders with disabilities who are searching for affordable housing. "This is not about me," Hammerman said. "It's about empowering an audience that doesn't know they can tap their potential."