Rui's Place at Balgownie was a dream come true for disabled young adults who went there to learn social and life skills leading to greater independence.Disability services provider Essential Personnel opened the house with a mix of government grants and money raised by family and staff to replace its cramped Wollongong premises.But two years on, the dream has turned sour.Administrative wrangling resulted in the suspension of manager Cathy Potter in August and a mass walkout of parents with their sons and daughters.Twenty-three of the 25 clients aged between 18 and 28 - some severely disabled - are caught in the middle of the mess, their lives destabilised so badly that they all required counselling.Parents claimed they were forced to remove them because the standard of care had dropped and they couldn't get any straight answers from management.These claims have been denied by Essential Personnel.In the meantime, the organisation instigated a police investigation into Ms Potter's handling of funds, which came to nothing. Police decided there were no ground to lay charges.But her suspension was converted to dismissal last week for her "failure to obey a lawful instruction".A lawyer for Ms Potter, Mark McDonald, described the sacking as "ridiculous and vexatious" and foreshadowed legal action against Essential Personnel.Parents are now struggling to fill the services gap, with clients meeting in a disused garage while they await new premises.Janice Le from Dapto, whose daughter Tiffany, 20, has quadriplegia cerebral palsy, has had to give up a part-time job to transport her daughter with hoists and other heavy equipment."The bottom line in all of this is our children and we are willing to do almost anything to ease their distress," she said.Lorraine Diaz of Dapto described the upheaval as a "disgrace" that should never have happened.Her daughter, Amy, 20, has Down syndrome and suffers epileptic fits."Our kids are young adults but because of their disabilities are vulnerable and sensitive - this was something they never, ever expected," she said."We were all so happy with their progress at Rui's Place but that changed when we arrived there on August 10 to find Cathy (Potter) was no longer there," Ms Diaz said."The final straw was when four of the seven trainers who looked after our kids went off on some sort of stress leave and they brought in casuals who were not familiar with their needs."Everybody - including Cathy - contributed endless hours of voluntary work to get the house up and running and now we have to walk away with nothing."Margaret Johnson, a Wollongong real estate agent for 30 years, said she put her daughter, Ebony, 24, into the community program in January after hearing of Ms Potter's reputation. "Ebony has Asperger's syndrome, and I was overjoyed with her progress." Ms Johnson said parents had rallied to soften the impact for their children."I have had to continue working, but because we no longer have the use of community buses, the other parents are transporting Ebony to and from our new group," she said.Essential Personnel's chief executive officer, Amanda Calwell-Smith, asked that questions be submitted by email.In her written response she said she could not discuss the reasons for the dismissal because employee/employer matters were confidential.She denied claims the level of care at Rui's Place had declined and that parents had not been properly informed of developments."Essential Personnel's principal concern has at all times been to provide a continuing community participation program service to clients," Ms Calwell-Smith said."These services were still available after Ms Potter was suspended."Some parents and carers chose to withdraw from these services of their own volition and indeed these decisions were unfortunately always likely to result in upheaval for clients."Ms Calwell-Smith said the organisation had conducted itself appropriately at all times with the clients' best interests in mind.The Department of Ageing Disability and Home Care, which funds the program, is aware of the families' concerns.An official said Southern House with No Steps was setting up a centre-based community participation program "with a family governance approach".