At Grace Mountain, the people we serve keep teaching us how to human better, and one of the first lessons is about trust. It gets built by the same people showing up, day after day. That is why a new national survey matters to any family or case manager looking for care right now. ANCOR, the national association of disability service providers, surveyed 524 agencies across all 50 states. 55% said they were turning away new referrals because they couldn’t hire enough staff. So when you choose an agency, “are they good?” is only half the question. The other half: can they actually staff my person’s home, this month and next year?
October 5, 2026
At the end of September, ANCOR released its 2026 workforce crisis report. Each year since 2020 the group has asked agencies that serve people with intellectual and developmental disabilities what staff shortages are doing to them. Among the 524 that answered:
The service cut most often was residential habilitation, named by 40% of agencies. The report describes it as support that includes “around-the-clock” care, the kind an adult gets when they live in a host home or group home.
The report also explains how a shortage shows up inside an agency. When shifts go unfilled, providers “are forced to rely on supervisors or managers to render direct care services.” Those are the same people whose job is to train, mentor and support the staff. Remaining employees cover extra shifts, which leads to burnout and more turnover.
Colorado is named. The report lists it among states cutting back, saying Colorado “reversed planned rate increases for Medicaid providers and announced potential caps” on some programs (ANCOR, p. 9; Disability Scoop, Oct. 1).
If you’re a family, the first agency you call may say no, or say yes and then struggle to keep the home steady. If you’re a case manager, you’ve probably already felt it: more calls before someone says yes.
The type of home matters here. Colorado’s DD waiver supports living arrangements that range from “host homes settings with 1-2 persons” to “group settings of 4-8 persons” (HCPF). In a host home, one or two people live in a provider’s own home. The person they see at breakfast is the person they see at dinner. A host home isn’t immune to the shortage. Providers get sick, need a break, and sometimes move on. But the questions you ask are different, and so are the answers you should expect.
Here’s how we read it at Grace Mountain. The report is hard news, and it’s also useful. It tells you exactly where to look. Growth, for the people we serve, tends to happen with people who know them well and stick around long enough to see it. So staffing isn’t a back-office detail. It’s the ground everything else stands on, and any agency worth your trust should be glad to answer questions about it, including us.
Skip judging an agency by how fast it says yes. A quick reply is a good sign. A quick yes with no named person behind it, and no plan for who covers when that person needs a break, is not.
| Title | Outlet | Date |
|---|---|---|
| The State of America's Direct Support Workforce Crisis 2026 | ANCOR | 2026-09 |
| Worries grow that disability services could become impossible to access | Disability Scoop | 2026-10-01 |
| Developmental Disabilities (DD) Waiver | HCPF | retrieved 2026-10-05 |
Researched with AI assistance; edited by Ian Thomson.
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