Excerpts from a mailing list of righteous Bernie and Hillary supporters in our wealthy Boston suburb (renamed to “Social Justice Village”)…
Mom #1 (a dentist): McLean Hospital [a local mental hospital] has signed a P&S agreement and intends to purchase 2 houses in the family neighborhood near Bleeding Heart St. Although only a few people who happen to peruse our Social Justice Village website regularly may have picked up on what has been transpiring, most of Social Justice Village has no idea that this is going on. McLean intends to run a transitional (half-way) house for teenage boys aged 15-21 who have psychiatric disorders. The closing is scheduled for the end of May. I am shocked that this project could have come this far without any notification to our neighborhood and town and I urge everyone to familiarize yourselves with what is going on since it appears that our Village has given their approval without finding out exactly what is proposed. In a town where we are protected from garish lighting, people cutting down trees, building garages that are deemed too large, it seems outrageous that our Planning Board, Selectmen, Zoning Board, do not consider a threat to its citizens’ security of importance. Is this the Social Justice Village Way? If it is … beware because this could happen in your neighborhood too.
Mom #2 (Harvard University employee): I suspect Town Counsel has determined that these uses are protected by right (State/Fed law?), and we will have only limited say. It is not that Town Counsel and/or other boards, committees and commissions have let us down, but rather that State & Fed. regs. may the our hands.
Mom #3: I don’t want to appear naive, but want to make an observation. I’ve never known more thoughtful, brilliant, upstanding, kind, philanthropic, humble, accomplished, creative, and worldly men than the husbands, fathers, and public servants in Social Justice Village. It is an excellent town for male role models.
A psychiatric disorder in a young man is not the same as a behavioral problem or a budding criminal. A person who has a psychiatric disorder may be suffering from depression or an eating disorder, or may be recovering from a trauma or an addiction. If they are in a halfway house, it means they have already shown they are committed to recovery. I wonder if this isn’t really the very best place for them, a place close to nature, where they can see such good men being good fathers and good husbands and excellent citizens every day. Maybe our community could rally behind them and help them in their re-integration into society, and in the discovery of themselves as capable and worthy, and maybe we could ask for their contribution to our town, which is also their town if they feel they are part of it . Maybe they have talents, maybe they’re willing to do chores and yard work and other things that would help them feel independent and help in their recovery.[Note that Mom #3 has apparently not spent too much time in the local family court to hear how the local high-income husbands and fathers are described by their plaintiffs when it is time to pull the ripcord and grab the house, kids, and cash! Based on her ideas about these folks with psychiatric disorders doing chores it seems that she is unfamiliar with SSDI.]
Dad #1: I’m not sure which side of the fence I fall on without more info but I was also curious (mostly because I’m unfamiliar with them), does anyone know what the tax implications are with standing up such a facility on a property zoned for residential? At least their other facility charges like $1000 per day (average stay of 90-120 days, not covered by insurance….ouch). Do property taxes differ between residential and business zones?
Mom #4 (a Professor of Law): I am always pleased when I read that residents have had good experiences living next to one of the kind of group homes we are discussing (no snark–that is sincere.) That said, Dr. [Mom #1]’s question (and mine) is about process NOT about anecdotal experience. I assume that if she wanted to know how residents of these homes interacted with neighbors etc she would have asked about that. She didn’t. She (and many others) would like to know when the town learned about this and why homeowners most directly affected were not promptly notified. I take Mr. [Village official’s email] to be an attempt to respond to this issue. He says the kind of disclosure being demanded “…would be typically viewed as being discriminatory.” I do not understand that answer. Is it illegal for towns like Social Justice Village to inform residents about an impending group home or not? I am beginning to suspect that the answer is it is not. If so, this leads to the perfectly reasonable question–if not, then why are the interests of the owners/operators of the group home superior to those of Social Justice Village citizens?
Mom #5 (with a Masters in Education from Harvard): A few of the laws that make us do the right thing:
Affirmative Fair Marketing for Affordable Housing
Anti-discrimination laws
Right to vote laws
Equal Right Laws
Chapter 40B: requires affordable housing
Chapter 40A: allows educational, religious organizations: No zoning ordinance or by-law shall regulate or restrict the interior area of a single family residential building nor shall any such ordinance or by-law prohibit, regulate or restrict the use of land or structures for religious purposes or for educational purposes on land owned or leased by the commonwealth or any of its agencies, subdivisions or bodies politic or by a religious sect or denomination, or by a nonprofit educational corporation; provided, however, that such land or structures may be subject to reasonable regulations concerning the bulk and height of structures and determining yard sizes, lot area, setbacks, open space, parking and building coverage requirements.We no longer warehouse people with special needs in institutions.
People with Developmental Disabilities now live in group homes and experience family with staff that can meet their needs. The Department of Disability Services does not release the addresses of group homes so as to not draw unwanted attention.
Mentally ill people and people with disabilities, transgender, gay or lesbian people are at the receiving end of violence far more often than initiating it.
*Why do we need these laws? Because without them, women would be making 50 cents on the dollar, black and white people would not be allowed to ‘inter marry’, African Americans would not be allowed to get mortgages, gay people would be back in the closet, mentally ill people would still be in institutions, there would be no affordable housing west of Boston, and no churches or schools in our neighborhoods, to name just a few reasons.*
People with disabilities are entitled to their privacy, that is why we are not told much about these programs. 20% of the population has one form of mental illness or another. They/we are everywhere.
[Note that the posited world in which “women would be making 50 cents on the dollar” would allow at least some women to get very rich indeed. They could run a company with a 100-percent female workforce and have dramatically lower labor costs than competitors, and therefore supranormal profits.]
Phil,
You continue to provide a great service by highlighting the hypocrisy of the “limousine liberals”.
“For thee but not for me”.
You should set up a fake presence on the email list and say: “I don’t know about you folks, but I think we should N.I.M.B.Y. the crap out of this. I don’t want a bunch of schizophrenic teen boys wandering the neighborhood; even normal teen boys usually spell trouble”
This is *exactly* what happened to the house next door to my brother’s house about 1 1/2 year ago. It was sold to a half-way transitional and caring house and NO one in the neighborhood knew about it until after the sales and when the construction crew started showing. Only then the neighborhood was up in arms and demanded a meeting with the city. Here is what we learned:
1) This is run and funded by the Federal Government, the State or Local Government has NO say in it.
2) Any and all zoning restrictions are NONE existing. The group that run them (there are more than group) can do very much whatever they want (more on this later).
3) The town is NOT obligated to bring this up to the neighborhood and the owner is NOT obligated to notify the neighborhood of what its plan is.
Regarding #2, like I said, this was a house next to my brother’s house and it so happens to be that my brother was remodeling his house at the time when all this happened. My brother was going through all kind of zoning restrictions, and inspection hell while this half-way house having none of it. They change the front grassland into paved parking space, changed the basement into 4 sleeping bedrooms, changed the first and second floor to 5 sleeping bedrooms, extended the house to add yet another 4 bedrooms, crossed over outside their house foundation to landzone limit, and much more. In short, the house has all kind of zoning violation that this neighborhood has.
My brother’s house is not too far off from McLean Hospital but this Federal law is not restricted, anyone can buy ANY property using Federal money and use it as such. In fact, the group that are now running this “mini-hospital” next to my brother’s house live in New Hampshire and they are hardly around.
So basically, what you need to do is form a non-profit, find real estate in likely to be popular areas, buy a smallish house on a large lot and build a McMansion (“group home”) and when the community complains that you are intending to run a halfway house for homicidal 12yo pyromaniac refugees who are Muslim … you sell the house to a regular guy. The non-profit takes a large profit on it, and you as director are then voted by the board (at your annual meeting in Hawaii, which the non-profit pays for) a fat bonus for all your hard work of the previous year.
Rinse, wash, repeat.
Re: Mom4
Whenever someone claims to have a question about process, it is a red herring.
In this case, process mom may have a point, if George A is right. But if all these list members voted for Obama, presumably they are not states rightists and are all for the expansion of federal powers.
Anonymous: There’s no evidence there of any hypocrisy by limousine liberals. Also, Philip, your point about chores in not valid. Millions of chores are performed by mentally ill people every day, including those who receive SSDI. More importantly, millions of mentally ill Americans hold regular full time jobs and pay taxes. Some even have quite good jobs and thus pay a lot of tax. Those taxes in turn have helped fund the various industries that make the greater Boston area one of the most prosperous in the country.
Off topic, looks like someone stole your startup idea Phil:
http://www.blogto.com/tech/2016/07/startup_rents_out_empty_toronto_bars_as_office_space/
An element of rehabilitation, be it physical, drug related or reentering society after a stint in jail, is family and community support. This support is enhanced when the rehab facility is located in the area that the family lives in. All of these issues afflict people who live in rich areas as well as those who live in poorer areas. Perhaps we would have less NIMBYism if the rehab facilities pursued a policy of admitting local people first.