Plans to open 2 more group homes in Ward 8, neighbors opposed

This makes the 3rd new group home project in as many weeks that I heard is coming to Ward 8. If DC is really serious about bringing economic development East of the River they need to stop looking at our community as more than just real estate. Why do we have more group homes than homeowners? 

I know other communities complain about being a "dumping group" of social services but they also have the amneties, services, economic development that we don't have. In a Ward of 70,000 people we have one major grocery store.  I have been helping someone today find a Ward 8 catering company and we have been coming up with goose eggs but we can both rattle off a laundry list of group homes, transitional housing, and independent living facilities in Ward 8.  What is wrong with this picture?!

Where are the grand openings and ribbon cutting ceremonies for new businesses? Does anyone else notice the disconnect????



Go HERE to read the full article by Chris Jenkins Ward 8 residents: Not another group home.

Excerpt:

Seasons Therapeutic Group Homes has leases to a pair of attached three-story townhouses on Valley Avenue SE to care for 16 teens who are 17 or younger. Each house, one for boys, one for girls, would accommodate eight children. Some think that the group homes’ could increase crime and disrupt what they described as a peaceful residential area. 

“That street is so quiet,” said Sandra Seegars, the ANC chairwoman for the neighborhood, who is running against Marion Barry for the Ward 8 city council seat. “They don’t need all of that on that block.” 

The project is awaiting city licenses but could open by late February. Seasons has a legal right to place the group homes there. 

Ty Johnson, managing partner for Seasons, said that the group homes would house young people who have been truant or posed other severe disciplinary problems for their families. Some of them will likely struggle with mental illness. She said that the homes would also be a place for easing children back into their communities after living in more intensive residential treatment settings across the country.

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