Lessons in Independence Get a Boost in Pacific Beach : Lifestyles: A new residential complex gives developmentally disabled people a chance to learn to live on their own--and gives neighbors the opportunity to help the residents integrate into the community.

With her brightly polished fingernails and bedroom filled with stuffed animals, Melissa Litten is much like any other young woman of 20.

She loves to have visitors, enjoys swimming and has a part-time job to make pocket money.

But Litten, who is severely retarded and has cerebral palsy, will probably never be able to care for herself without help from others. Her disability at first made everyday tasks such as brushing her teeth, making her bed and getting dressed in the morning a real challenge.

But those tasks are old hat now, thanks to the Assn. of Retarded Citizens of San Diego. With ARC’s help, Litten and other developmentally disabled people have learned to balance checkbooks, attend classes and hold a job.

And this week, when ARC opened four apartment buildings and four houses in Pacific Beach, retarded people learned to conquer a new challenge: living on their own.

The buildings, called the ARC Estates, will house severely retarded people who are independent enough to have their own apartments, according to San Diego ARC executive director Dr. Richard Farmer.

But the apartments, also open to non-retarded clients, will provide more than just housing, Farmer said. They will give retarded clients a chance to learn about living in the community and help non-disabled neighbors dispel prejudices.

“We wanted to have community integration here because the developmentally disabled usually relate to their peers and emulate people around them,” Farmer said.

“When they see other people around them interacting in normal families and cooperating with one another, they will feel they are part of the community. Other people in the community will see that developmentally disabled people are not necessarily people that they should shy away from. It makes a good setting,” he said.

Four residential group homes in addition to the apartments make up the almost 3-acre ARC Estates.

The project got under way about four years ago, when ARC acquired the land and two group homes from a local organization for the disabled, Farmer said.

The group, the Friends of Handicapped Children, could no longer afford the property, situated on some of the most expensive real estate in San Diego, and transferred the property to ARC, Farmer said.

Using funds allocated from private donors and tax-deductible bonds, ARC built the apartments and two additional homes at a cost of $2.8 million, Farmer said.

With its southwestern tones of peach and tan, the buildings sit on opposite corners of Shasta Street and Fortuna Avenue under shady eucalyptus trees. At the four residential homes, there are window boxes for geraniums and stylish donated furniture that make for a homey environment.

The developmentally disabled residents come from institutions or private homes, Farmer said. Residents pay for room and board through Medicare.

The apartments consist of four buildings, each with six, two-bedroom units. Retarded clients will share an apartment with a roommate, either disabled or not, to help them adjust to life on their own.

Rent for all residents of the complex is $850 per month, but developmentally disabled people will pay about $550 a month with help from a government subsidy fee.

The lessons that developmentally disabled learn from living on their own are priceless, said ARC spokesman Bill Kissam.

“For many years, with individuals with mental retardation, it was out of sight, out of mind with the community, because these people were hidden and put into institutions,” Kissam said. “In today’s society, we realize this can no longer be, and the people in Pacific Beach have been really accepting.”