Why Regional Centers Matter to SELATAG Families

Because a stable lease means nothing if the support services don’t show up.

Every week, SELATAG talks to mothers in South-East LA who are hanging on by a thread. They're fighting to keep a roof over their heads while navigating impossible systems to get help for a child with autism or another developmental disability. In these families, there is no “team of professionals.” There’s a single parent, an overwhelmed landlord, and maybe—if they’re lucky—a school that halfway understands.

That’s where California’s Regional Centers come in.

1. What Are Regional Centers?

They’re California’s answer to a lifelong support system for people with developmental disabilities. Set up under the Lanterman Act, these 21 non-profit agencies are legally required to diagnose, coordinate, and pay for services across a person’s lifespan. Think autism, intellectual disability, cerebral palsy. No income test. No private insurance required. Just proof of a qualifying disability.

Each family gets a Service Coordinator—someone to build an Individual Program Plan (IPP) and connect them with therapies, respite, behavioral support, and day programs. The center pays vendors directly. It’s not perfect. But when it works, it’s a lifeline.

2. What SELATAG Does—and Why Regional Centers Matter

SELATAG focuses on housing stability and tenant rights. But we’re not a housing nonprofit in the abstract—we’re in court every week defending single mothers from eviction, fighting for relocation help when slumlords retaliate, and translating medical needs into enforceable legal rights under the Fair Housing Act.

Here’s the punchline: housing and disability services are inextricably linked. If the kid gets booted out of their apartment, everything else—therapy, routine, school, sleep—is gone.

You can’t separate housing from services. One hand has to know what the other is doing.

3. Two Regional Centers in SELATAG’s Backyard

If you live in Southeast LA, you’re probably in one of these catchment areas:

• SCLARC (South Central Los Angeles Regional Center): Covers South LA, Compton, Watts, and Southeast cities. Known for culturally competent intake and a long history of advocacy.

• Harbor Regional Center (HRC): Serves Long Beach, Carson, and parts of SE LA County. Grew from under 400 clients to over 19,000 in 50 years.

These aren’t just offices—they’re the administrative gatekeepers for services that can make or break a family’s ability to survive.

4. Where Things Fall Apart—and SELATAG Steps In

We know what it looks like when the system works. We also know where it breaks.

1. Evictions destroy stability.

A child getting ABA therapy in-home? That ends the day the family loses the unit. Even a threat of eviction can make a Service Coordinator hesitate to greenlight a long-term support plan.

2. Landlords don’t care about “reasonable accommodations.”

We’ve seen families denied a ground-floor unit for a non-verbal child who elopes. We’ve seen parents told to remove sensory equipment. SELATAG goes to bat in court, translating needs into enforceable legal obligations.

3. Families find the Regional Center too late.

We meet them at clinics, schools, legal aid workshops. Many have been struggling for years before anyone tells them they might be eligible for DDS-funded support. We get them referred, prepped for intake, and help them push for housing stability to be part of the IPP.

4. Data collaboration saves lives.

When we see the same landlord names show up in multiple unsafe-unit reports or retaliation cases, we talk to Regional Center advocates. That data-sharing helps protect multiple clients and escalates systemic problems.

5. How Families Can Start—Now

1. Find Your Center. Use this lookup tool or call us—we’ll walk you through it.

2. Gather documentation. Medical reports, IEPs, evaluations.

3. Request intake. The law gives the center 15 working days to respond.

4. Mention your housing instability. It should be explicitly listed in the IPP as a need.

5. Loop us in. If your therapist says the unit is unsafe or your caseworker ignores housing issues, SELATAG can step in.

6. The Bottom Line

The Regional Center system wasn’t designed with housing in mind. And the housing system wasn’t built to protect children with complex disabilities. That’s where SELATAG lives—in the gap. We’re here to stitch the systems together so they don’t fall apart when families need them most.

If you’re a single mother in South-East LA dealing with both housing stress and a child with developmental needs:

• Call SELATAG.

• Get connected to SCLARC or HRC.

• Come to a workshop.

Because ABA therapy doesn’t work if you’re living in your car. And a landlord’s refusal to fix a leak shouldn’t cancel your child’s only shot at progress.