CB 11 splits on group homes

The proposed establishment of two group homes for developmentally disabled adults aroused the passionate and sometimes contentious testimony of board members, the public and the applicants at Community Board 11's most recent monthly meeting.
Discussed on Monday, December 4 were applications made by the Association for Neurologically Impaired Brain Injured Children (ANIBIC) to establish a community residence at 69-37 229th Street in Oakland Gardens and another made by the Association for the Help of Retarded Children (AHRC) to establish a residence at 56-23 186th Street in Fresh Meadows. The homes would accommodate eight and five adults respectively.
Although the board approved the ANIBIC residence by a vote of 31 to 7 with one abstention, it rejected the proposed AHRC residence by a vote of 24 to 13 with one abstention under the guidelines of the state's Community Residence Site Selection Law or so-called &#8220Padavan Law” after its champion, State Senator Frank Padavan.
The law's purpose is to facilitate the integration of people into communities who previously would have been institutionalized due to mental disability or illness before the State moved toward a policy of deinstitutionalization beginning in the 1970s.
According to the law, the sponsor of a licensed community residence must notify the municipality where it proposes to locate the home. The municipality then has 40 days in which to respond to the proposal. It may approve the site, suggest an alternate site, or reject it. The only basis upon which to reject a proposal is because it would over-concentrate the neighborhood with such facilities and change the nature or character of the neighborhood.
Speaking in opposition, Steve Neggie asked, &#8220How is a home such as this, with potentially five buses picking up in the morning and five buses dropping off in the evening, deliveries, healthcare workers and staff of 11 coming and going at all hours of the day and night allowed to operate on a block with R-2 zoning?”
Neggie was referring to the low-density zoning class that, according to City planning guidelines, allows for only detached, single-family residences. He lives just doors away from the proposed site on 186th Street and believes the character of his neighborhood will change if the AHRC residence is approved.
Howard Haider, who said he lives across the street from P.S. 177 located at 56-37 188th Street in Flushing said, &#8220I believe the saturation point is absolutely overdone.” P.S. 177 educates 385 special needs students in grades one through 12, according to the New York City Department of Education web site. Haider also said there are additional group homes within a few blocks.
&#8220It's not just the number of group homes, it's the number of people that are being serviced,” he said.
Jerome Schorr questioned why more of the AHRC's homes are located in Queens than any other borough -16 as compared to 10 in the Bronx, which has the second highest density of AHRC homes - and why many of those are located in Community Board 11.
&#8220You are not being saturated, you are being drowned,” Schorr said. &#8220I don't believe the State has said these people have to be warehoused, and that's what they are, in New York City. Upstate New York is desperate for people to spend money. Why do we have nine homes in this community board?” he asked. &#8220These people are snake oil artists.”
Cindy Leahy, whose daughter lives in a group home, resented the suggestion that such homes be located upstate and responded to additional testimony by Neggie that he was consulting an attorney to try to prevent the home from opening.
&#8220I'd rather be home watching ‘Without a Trace' than listening to your bigoted comments,” Leahy said after defying Neggie to pursue legal recourse. &#8220Have the Padavan Law challenged and even Senator Padavan himself will tell you that [it] will be found to be illegal because of the Fair Housing Act.”
&#8220We're on a very tight rope,” Padavan said in a telephone interview, explaining that because the Federal Fair Housing Act prohibits any restrictions or interference with housing-related transactions, the Padavan Law, which allows for community review, could be overturned.
&#8220If that happened, then the community would have no role to play at all,” he said.
Because the board rejected the AHRC proposal, it will next be reviewed by the state's Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, which could approve the AHRC group home despite community resistance.
Reached by telephone, Robert C. Goldsmith, Chief Executive Officer of the AHRC said, &#8220We regret the vote and will work with the community as much as possible.”