STRUTHERS — As she took a self-guided tour through a new home, city Councilwoman Megan Pingley envisioned her son being able to one day live independently.

“This means a lot. When he ages out of the system, it will be very scary,” Pingley said, fighting back tears.

Pingley was referring to her son, Noah Gonzalez, 12, who is on the autism spectrum and who, she fears, may lose valuable services when he becomes an adult — a fate that befalls many on the spectrum.

Nevertheless, giving Pingley a strong sense of buoyancy and hope was becoming familiarized with the home in which she walked that has been built for three adults with autism to live independently.

The residence, 548 Judith Lane, also was the site of a ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house Tuesday that the nonprofit Dylan’s House organization hosted. The one-story blue home represents another step forward for the organization, established in 2023, to provide safe and independent living opportunities for adults on the spectrum throughout the Mahoning Valley, as well as support for their caregivers..

“Its functionality would fit his lifestyle,” Pingley said about Noah, who received his diagnosis at age 3 and has difficulty making friends.

Her son also had echolalia, a common characteristic among many with autism, and has memorized “full movies,” Pingley added. Echolalia is the automatic, non-voluntary repetition of words, phrases or sounds that someone else has spoken or that have been heard from various forms of entertainment, such as TV, music or movies.

The residence sits in a quiet, middle-class neighborhood and features a single-car garage, three bedrooms, two baths, a full basement with an L-shaped couch and flat-screen TV, and a combined living room, kitchen and dining area with a separate laundry space. The only remaining work will be to add topsoil and grass seed to the front and back yards, Joe Koch, president of Austintown-based Joe Koch Construction Inc., noted.

The business began building the home about a year ago on what was a vacant parcel that contained a house that had been razed, Koch said.

An estimated one in 31 children in the U.S. are on the autism spectrum, and more than 500,000 of them will enter adulthood in the next decade, Kevin Shope, Dylan’s House’s president, said in his remarks Tuesday. He added that about 600,000 individuals on the spectrum are on a waiting list for needed services, a process that “can take years to reach fruition,” Shope added.

According to other information available at the residence, 50,000 teens on the autism spectrum enter adulthood annually without enough support. Also, many families face what they refer to as a “services cliff” in which services, along with structured support through school systems younger people on the spectrum had received, suddenly end when they turn 18 or 21. Consequently, more than half of young adults with autism lack jobs and can receive post-secondary education during the years immediately after high school.

In addition, 40% to 50% of adults on the autism spectrum struggle to find work, the information available at the open house showed.

Complicating the picture for many with autism is that the vast majority of them rely solely on their parents as primary caregivers, and over time, the parents age and circumstances change — against a backdrop of a high national turnover rate in the professional caregiver workforce.

Despite such a grim picture, Dylan’s House is committed to fighting for the rights and independence of adults with an autism diagnosis, Kevin Shope said.

“For me as an autism mom … this is such a huge day,” Amy Shope, Dylan’s House’s co-founder, said.

Struthers Mayor Catherine Cercone Miller recalled recent meetings with Kevin and Amy Shope, and needing virtually no time to support their decision to have the home built in her city, which she described as family-oriented.

“Everything just fit,” Cercone Miller said, adding, “I’m proud and excited.”

Kevin Shope noted that Dylan’s House is collaborating with the Mahoning County Board of Developmental Disabilities and other agencies toward determining the adults who will live in the home. Such a recommendation likely will be made within 30 to 60 days, he said, adding that Dylan’s House will not make that selection.

Also contributing to the home were the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber and the Home Builders & Remodelers Association of the Valley.