A state hearing about a group home planning to move from the south Bronx to the struggling Waterbury Estates development in Pelham Bay was recently held.
Community Board 10 passed a resolution in November 2008 requesting the home’s sponsor – Community Action for Human Services – look within the confines of Community Board 3 in the south Bronx to find a location for seven developmentally disabled individuals already living there.
CB 10 district manager Kenneth Kearns, as well as a representative of Klein’s office, attended a closed-door meeting at the state Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disability’s offices on Thursday, March 25.
“The request for the OMRDD hearing did not come from CB 10, but from Community Action for Human Services as a result of the board turning down its request for support of a proposed group home at 3407 Bruckner Boulevard,” Kearns said. “CB 10 has a statement we will be presenting at the meeting.”
The meeting was held in accordance with section 41-34 ( c ) (5) of New York State mental hygiene law, which allows those sponsoring a group home the right to defend their plans before OMRDD.
CAHS is planning to move their clients out of an apartment building in CB 3 to 3407 Bruckner Boulevard.
Many who live nearby are not keen about having another group home in the area. They are particularly question why the sponsors is not looking closer to home for its new site.
“These adults are from Community Board 3,” said Anita Valenti, of the Pelham Bay Taxpayers Community Association. “They have already told us that the group home they plan on opening will not house those needing services in Community Board 10.”
Valenti feels that with many foreclosed homes located all over the city, it is imprudent for the agency to spend $730,000 of mostly taxpayer money, plus another $70,000 for alterations, to buy into the buyer-weary Waterbury Estates development.
According to CB 10, the state would be wasting its funds in Waterbury Estates, where only 26 out of 47 new homes are sold. Ciampa Estate built Waterbury Estates.
“The state shouldn’t subsidize a failed developer,” Kearns said about the proposed group home at a CB 10 meeting on Thursday, March 19.
