What are Nebraska Shared Living services?

Shared Living is a residential habilitation service for some adults with developmental disabilities. Nebraska DHHS describes it as a service in which a participant lives in a private home with an individual, couple, or family called a Shared Living Provider. They share daily life while the provider teaches skills, assists with daily activities, supports community access, and provides supervision based on assessed need.

Short answer

Shared Living is more than renting a room or receiving occasional help. It is a 24-hour residential service built around a participant's assessed needs, choices, goals, and person-centered plan. It must be offered through a Nebraska DD agency provider and authorized under the applicable program.

Which waiver includes Shared Living?

Nebraska's January 2026 Shared Living information identifies the service as available through the Comprehensive Developmental Disabilities (CDD) Waiver for people who may be age 19 or older. It is not available through the Family Support Waiver or the Developmental Disabilities Adult Day Waiver.

That does not mean every person enrolled in the CDD Waiver will receive Shared Living. The service must match assessed needs and personal goals, be selected through person-centered planning, be authorized, and be delivered within current Nebraska requirements. Families should confirm current eligibility and service details with the assigned service coordinator.

Who is responsible for the service?

Nebraska DHHS states that only an agency provider can offer Shared Living. The agency contracts with a Shared Living Provider and remains responsible for important oversight functions. Official Nebraska materials describe agency responsibilities that include selecting qualified contractors, providing or arranging training, supervising the arrangement, ensuring availability and quality, and responding when service concerns arise.

This distinction matters. The household member provides daily support, but the DD agency is not simply a referral service. Ask how the agency supervises the home, reviews documentation, monitors habilitation goals, handles incidents and complaints, and supports both the participant and Shared Living Provider.

What should person-centered planning look like?

The participant's voice should guide the decision. The person-centered plan should describe the participant's goals, preferences, strengths, assessed support needs, communication, health and safety considerations, daily routines, community interests, supervision, and how progress will be reviewed.

Families and guardians may offer important information when appropriate, but the home should not be chosen only for convenience or provider availability. The participant needs understandable information about the household, neighborhood, routines, rights, responsibilities, alternatives, and how to request a change.

Compatibility is about everyday life

A successful arrangement depends on more than an available bedroom. The participant and potential Shared Living Provider should have enough time and information to explore whether daily life may be a reasonable fit. Topics can include:

  • typical wake, meal, work, day-service, and bedtime routines;
  • communication style, sensory needs, and preferred ways to receive support;
  • pets, smoking, visitors, children, household noise, and cultural or faith practices;
  • food preferences, allergies, mobility, accessibility, and transportation;
  • privacy, personal space, relationships, and time alone when safely supported;
  • community activities, employment, education, recreation, and family contact;
  • behavioral, medical, medication, and emergency-support expectations; and
  • how disagreements, complaints, schedule changes, and possible moves will be handled.

A meeting, home visit, and gradual transition may help participants and teams gather information. The appropriate process depends on the person, plan, risks, consent, and program requirements.

What rights should families discuss?

Home and community-based services are intended to support community living, choice, privacy, dignity, autonomy, and access to ordinary life. Before placement, ask how the agency and home will support the participant's rights in practice—not only in policy.

  • Can the participant make choices about daily schedules and activities?
  • How is privacy supported in the bedroom, bathroom, communications, and personal relationships?
  • How can the participant receive visitors and maintain family and community connections?
  • How are food choices, possessions, money, mail, and personal information protected?
  • How can the participant make a complaint without retaliation?
  • Who explains rights and any proposed restriction in an understandable way?
  • How are changes documented, reviewed, and approved through the person-centered process?

How should health, safety, and emergencies be planned?

The team should review the participant's assessed needs and create clear, current instructions for routine support and emergencies. Depending on the person, planning may address medications, appointments, mobility, allergies, seizures, choking, falls, behavioral crises, elopement risk, weather emergencies, transportation, communication, and who must be contacted.

Ask what training the Shared Living Provider receives, how competency is checked, how backup support works, and what happens if the provider becomes ill or unavailable. A website or introductory meeting cannot substitute for the participant's individualized plan, professional orders, or emergency instructions.

How do day services and community life fit?

Shared Living should support a life in the community, not isolate someone inside the home. Discuss the participant's employment, day services, appointments, relationships, faith community, recreation, shopping, volunteering, and ordinary neighborhood activities.

Nebraska's approved CDD Waiver states that day services must not be provided by the Shared Living Provider. Because program details and authorizations can change, ask the service coordinator and agency to explain which providers will deliver each service, how schedules will coordinate, and who is responsible for transportation.

Questions to ask a Nebraska Shared Living agency

  • Are you currently approved to provide Shared Living in Nebraska?
  • How do you recruit, screen, train, contract with, and supervise Shared Living Providers?
  • How do you include the participant in choosing the home and household?
  • What information and visits are offered before anyone agrees to a match?
  • How do you assess compatibility and respond if the arrangement is not working?
  • How are habilitation goals taught, documented, and reviewed?
  • How often does agency staff monitor the service and speak privately with the participant?
  • How are rights, privacy, visitors, community access, and personal choice supported?
  • What backup, respite, emergency, incident, and after-hours procedures are used?
  • How do you coordinate with service coordinators, clinicians, day providers, employers, and family members?
  • What costs, household agreements, notices, and move procedures should the participant understand?
  • How can the participant or family make a complaint or request a different provider?

How can Veracity Systems help?

Veracity Systems provides Nebraska developmental-disabilities services that may include Shared Living when the service is within Veracity's approved scope, authorized for the participant, and compatible with assessed need, home availability, provider matching, safety, staffing, location, and current capacity.

Review our Nebraska DD services, read the person-centered planning guide, or submit a service inquiry. Sharing the participant's county, age, waiver and service-coordination status, communication, accessibility, household preferences, current supports, and authorized service can help begin a focused conversation.

Questions families often ask

What is Shared Living in Nebraska?

Shared Living is a Nebraska developmental-disabilities residential habilitation service delivered in a private home. The participant and a Shared Living Provider live together and share daily life. Support is based on assessed needs and the participant's person-centered plan.

Which Nebraska waiver includes Shared Living?

Nebraska DHHS identifies Shared Living as a service on the Comprehensive Developmental Disabilities (CDD) Waiver. It is not listed as a service on the Family Support Waiver or Developmental Disabilities Adult Day Waiver. Eligibility for a waiver does not automatically authorize Shared Living.

Who provides Shared Living?

Nebraska DHHS states that only an agency provider can offer Shared Living. The agency contracts with and supervises the individual, couple, or family serving as the Shared Living Provider and is responsible for provider qualifications, training, oversight, availability, and service quality.

Can a family choose the Shared Living home?

Participant choice is central to person-centered planning. A participant should have meaningful information about the home, provider, household, routines, rights, community, and alternatives before agreeing. The final arrangement must also meet assessment, authorization, setting, safety, and program requirements.

Is Shared Living the same as a group home?

No. Nebraska describes Shared Living as support in a private home where the participant lives with a Shared Living Provider and shares daily life. A group home is a different residential model. Ask the service coordinator to explain each authorized option and its current rules.

Does Veracity guarantee a Shared Living placement?

No. An inquiry does not guarantee eligibility, waiver enrollment, authorization, provider acceptance, a particular home, compatibility, funding, staffing, or a start date. Veracity must review the referral and determine whether it can safely meet the person's authorized needs.

Authoritative resources

General-information notice: This article is educational and is not an eligibility decision, service authorization, placement recommendation, guarantee, or medical, legal, financial, housing, or individualized advice. Nebraska waiver, setting, provider, service, payment, and documentation requirements may change and vary by participant. Confirm current information with Nebraska DHHS, the assigned service coordinator, the participant's planning team, and the selected agency provider.