Have just found out a "group home" is in my neighborhood.

[OldBlondBabe]

I found out over the summer that a house on my street (just a handful of houses away) is now a "group home". According to another neighbor the residents are "highly to moderately trainable adults". Supposedly there is one adult supervisor there for about every 4-5 residents.

There has already been at least one incident; one of the residents was off his meds, flopping around on the neighbors pool cover and wouldn't leave. I've just recently found out that one of the residents is on the Public Sex Offender Registry---his offense, criminal sexual conduct- third degree (multi variables.)

I live in an affluent suburb of Detroit, in Oakland County. The homes here average around $300,000...it's a nice area.

I'm looking for advice and guidance. I have kids,one of which is a 13-year old girl. Thanks in advance for your help and direction.

[Casloy]

I wouldn't use the value of your home as a basis for the complaint. I would be most upset about the sex offender.

[gnarledmaw]

See your FRMail...

[HAL9000]

May 15, 1995 - CITY OF EDMONDS, PETITIONER v. OXFORD HOUSE, INC., et al.

For the sake of completeness - Dissent [ Thomas ] - Joined by Scalia.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

I'm with you. Our brother lived successfully in a group home for people needing 24 hr. medication-monitoring, until his physical disability got to the point where he needed to go into a nursing home. These people were NOT dangerous to the neighborhood.

[Grani]

"Some people really do recover from pedophilia.""

And I have a bridge to sell you...

[tertiary01]

I really don't care about your paper, I believe what I see with my own eyes. I can find studies that will refute everything you say, so it all really boils down to experience.

[Weirdad]

A big problem with this is that the State (or whoever set this home up) "mixed residents." It makes them less effective at caring for the residents since the skills and resources needed to "care" for a sex offender are different than those needed to care for retarded people. Moreover, they have exposed those retarded people quite intimately to a danger that they do not need to be exposed to.

I would suggest as part of your strategy focusing only on the sex offender, and trying to align to some extent with groups advocating for the retarded.

Just because you are retarded does not mean that you should have to live with a sex offender!

Advocacy groups and the families of those retarded people might also have an interest in moving that sex offender elsewhere to a more appropriate location.

[MissAmericanPie]

Find out if the house has section 8 guide lines, and if it does, by law, all felons must be thrown out. A friend of mine had the problem of building a new home in a very upscale section, they were told that the empty area behind them was going to be a park with jogging track, the works.
Instead section8 apartments were built there.

Then of course the thefts started, they couldn't leave their garage door open to even go inside for a drink of water without being hit for some property or other. Then the fed went in and toss'ed everyone out of section 8 housing that had a felony. Still, they had to sell without getting any equity.

Goood luck and let us know what happens.

[Aracelis]

I really don't care about your paper

Ah, ok...you've just confirmed your "qualifications".

Just in case you are interested in a little education, I present the following essay (which you won't read):

6. Treating Sex Offenders in a State Hospital

by Kevin Price, M.D.
Psychiatric Times June 2002 Vol. XIX Issue 6

Snip: "In the unit's eight and a half years of existence, the re-offense rate has been less than 10% for individuals who successfully completed the program and entered the community, based on conversations with mental health care centers and known arrests. This recidivism rate for sex offenders seems better than the relapse rate for patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder treated in a typical state hospital."

Hmmm...seems a bit at odds with your "experience".

[kcvl]

If it is a private run home call the administrator (who probably doesn't even live there). If it is a state run home call your congressman. Tell them that you will sue their pants off for putting your family in harms way. If you have already had an incident explain it to them. Get your neighbors together and go to your city counsel. The more noise you make the more attention they will pay to you. Your child should NOT be put in this mess.

You don't even want to know what goes on in them. If they house men and women it is most likely they are giving the women birth control pills already because they can't control the rampant sex in any of them. They would have hell to pay if they moved in to my neighborhood with a sex offender as a "patient" especially if I had children (of either sex).

[Aracelis]

A 13 yr. old may not be able to carry legally, but could still go to the range and become proficient in the use of.. Far as I know, intruders are still fair game..

Absolutely. My daughters were taught how to shoot beginning at age 10 and 9, they also took karate. After having been sexually assaulted when I was 10, I wasn't going to leave anything to chance. Personal Responsibility.

[Conservative4Ever]

I can only speak for CA. If the home is for 6 or less, there is no regulation to stop the home from opening in your neighborhood. Contact your county Social Services and find out the name and licensee for the home. It is public record. Write a complaint to the Social Service office. In CA the department is Community Care Licensing. For your state it might be worded differently. Most of the clients in the homes are just trying to live normally like you and me. However the sex offender part would make even me nervous if I had children in the area.
The homes are required to have care and supervision 24/7. If the client on the pool cover was not supervised by the home's staff, you have the right to go directly to the home and complain to the administrator or the licensee. Each home has a procedure to handle neighborhood complaints. You also have a right to complain to your licensing department. Hope this helps.

Red

[Calico Cat]

I lived in a neighborhood with a halfway house for the mentally ill three houses down the street. (Actually, it wasn't officially a 'halfway house'--the landlord rented rooms to mentally ill clients.) Some were sex offenders, some were violent. Nobody was supervising these people's medications, or making sure they went to their doctors, except for any family members who may have occasionally stopped by. There were about 40 of them living in this house.

I must say that, aside from constantly being asked if I had a cigarette, the occasional panhandler, and the (very) occasional public meltdown (yelling, obscenities, etc.) I never had any problem with any of these people. The police occasionally stopped by, but it was usually to settle disputes between residents, or to haul somebody who'd skipped his meds off to the hospital. I actually made friends with a few of them. I felt sorry for them. They belonged in the hospital; some were quite sick.

Of course, I didn't have children at the time, so I'm not sure how I'd react to living three doors down from a place like this now.

[Conservative4Ever]

You don't even want to know what goes on in them. If they house men and women it is most likely they are giving the women birth control pills already because they can't control the rampant sex in any of them.

It's late...I'm tired...on night duty in one of those homes...and if your rant weren't so stupidly ignorant..it would be laughable.

[kcvl]

We provide prescriptions for about a dozen of the homes so please don't lecture me. I KNOW what goes on in "those homes".

Maybe you should get off the internet and take care of your patients. It doesn't surprise me that you aren't.

[kcvl]

Don't be surprised if the "employees" are using the patients bank accounts either. They aren't exactly being run by geniuses (if you can find one of the employees even on the premises).

[Clemenza]

I used to live in a nabe in Chicago with a high concentration of these "group homes." Many of the senior citizens homes were actually being used to house sex offenders and junkies.

I actually have no problem with such places as long as 1. they are spread out 2. keep the inmates in line and don't allow them to roam the neighborhood.

In the nabe I just moved from a few months back, they opened a home for retarded adults that people had the nerve to protest. Since opening it last year, there have been NO problems.

[Conservative4Ever]

Have you actually worked in a group home? Volunteered some hours? Offered to mow the lawn? At least you are kind enough to provide the prescriptions. Just to enlighten you...most care/group homes are the terrible dens of iniquity to make them out to be. Just folks who had the misfortune to be born with disabilities and need a helping hand from others to have as much a normal, happy fulfilled life as you and I enjoy.

Red

[kcvl]

I'll put my volunteer hours up against yours any day of the week.

I happen to know most of the patients personally. It's not their fault. I never said it was. I just know what goes on in the homes. I also know who doesn't do a very good job of running them.

[Conservative4Ever]

I can only suggest if you are not happy about the quality of the care in the homes...open one yourself. Show them how it's done. Not only would you be an example, but be providing a good home for those who need one.

Red