Bellerose residents voiced their outrage over a proposed group home for autistic men and caused a city nonprofit to flee the neighborhood.
Quality Services for the Autism Community (QSAC), a New York City-based nonprofit wanted to open a group home for eight autistic males in Bellerose. But after a push back from the community board and strong dissent from the neighborhood – the nonprofit decided to back away.
“It’s unfortunate that there is community opposition to housing for vulnerable people, but that’s the reality in this situation,” said Gary Maffei, QSAC’s executive director.
The nonprofit will be looking for another site that best fits its needs.
With letters to the community board and local elected officials over the proposed group home, residents cited concerns about the “potential danger” to children who go to school at St. Gregory the Great School in the area and use its school yard in the evenings or on weekends.
They also said they were afraid that the neighborhood would become oversaturated with group homes.
“The main issue is that they’re putting two group homes right next to each other,” said Virginia Salow, author of one of the letters.
Salow said that the home would be the second one within a block-and-a-half span. If the facility had opened, residents were concerned about the quality of life in their neighborhood if the autistic young men had moved there.
She and parents in the area feared that the nonprofit would not have staff to look after them during the evenings or on weekends.
But Maffei said that his organization would have workers at the home at all times to take care of the autistic young men.
The nonprofit has another group home about six miles away in Rosedale and never heard a complaint from residents in 10 years, he said.
With those sites, Maffei said the nonprofit has worked with those communities to make sure there were no problems.
“We try to be a good neighbor,” he said.
The nonprofit has about 10 other homes in Queens and western Long Island.
The community’s concerns about their neighborhood becoming oversaturated with group homes would have gone through an extensive review process conducted by the New York State Office of Persons with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD). The community board has 40 days to review QSAC’s proposal. They must submit their recommendation to the state agency’s commissioner who then has another 90 days to review the proposal.
The process usually takes months before the state agency makes a final determination, according to Travis Proulx, a spokesperson for the OPWDD.
The state agency does not break down the number of group homes by community board, but by local district offices. In the area that covers southeast and southwest Queens, the state runs 24 group homes that serve 143 people, while there are 303 voluntary run homes providing service to 1,799 disabled individuals.
Lawrence McClean, district manager of Community Board 13, said his office received QSAC’s letter of intent to open the home on May 19. Procedures outlined by the OPWDD gave the board 40 days to review the proposal and issue a recommendation to the state agency by June 28.
The board held a joint meeting with its executive officers and Health and Land Use committees on June 13 and decided to oppose the group home.
