A Calgary woman continues to fight red tape as she honours a pledge she made to keep the group home her parents operated in business following their recent deaths.

Roxanna Indergaard says the residents of the home are more than just clients; Charlie, Suzie, Scott and Doug are members of the family.

“All of my kids and my sister’s kids have grown up with the residents that are here,” explained Indegaard. “They go to every family function, every family reunion. They are not discluded from anything.”

When her parents passed away earlier this year, Indergaard became the guardian of the four clients with developmental disabilities.

“Life without them? I can’t really imagine it because I’ve grown up with it as well,” said Indergaard.”We don’t really think of them as our clients, they’re our family” 

Before they passed, Indergaard’s parents Chere and Errol, had been taking people with disabilities into their home for almost 50 years. In total, they cared for 16 clients and loved them like their own children.

When the couple passed away last year, Indergaard promised to continue their legacy by continuing to care for their clients.

“It was commitment that my sister and I made to our parents, that they would always have a home,” said Indergaard.

But there were several roadblocks that Indergaard faced to keep the home and it nearly shut down.

Her insurance company deemed the house a commercial building and increased the rate from $4,100 to $15,000 a year. However, Indergaard switched brokers and managed to negotiate the price back down. 

Then, parking became a problem.

“My parents had permanent parking passes because their vehicles were registered here,” said Indergaard. “When I contacted the city, to try and be a little proactive, and explained our situation: that we required the parking permits but didn’t actually have registered parking here, they basically said that there was nothing they could do to help us because there were no vehicles registered to this address.” 

Parking spots are crucial for doctor and nurse visits and even though Indergaard offered to pay, the city wouldn’t budge until CTV started looking into it.

"What we can do is look into a temporary pass in the meantime until we can work with her to develop sort of a long term solution for the situation. We do understand it's very unique," said Brittany Kustra with Calgary Roads.

There are about 500 private group homes in Calgary. It's a niche service that experts in the field say is crucial.

"If this model didn't exist, many of them would have to go back to an institutional larger congregate care type of facility, which really isn't where you can grow and develop,” said Elain Yost, the President and Director of Options Rehabilitation Services.

Thanks to Indergaard, Charlie, Suzie, Scotty and Doug don't have to face that fate. They can stay right where they are, with their family.