Tenn. to Close Last Large Institution

The state has agreed to close a 40-year-old facility in east Tennessee for people with limited mental functioning, a move that advocates say marks a welcome end to an era of housing people with disabilities in large state-run asylums, often for the majority of their lives.

Under the plan, the Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities will shutter Greene Valley Developmental Center in Greeneville by June 30, 2016, moving the remaining 96 residents into more home-like settings integrated into neighborhoods.