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What I have a problem with is group homes for druggies and ex cons - particularly when they are located right next to schools where there are young children attending. BTW, the people in the neighborhood do not have to be informed when a group home is being established nearby.

I learned of this just recently. A friend told me about one to be placed in the middle of a new development of pretty nice homes. It is not HOA, so the other people buying the homes won't have a clue until it is too late.

As far as I know, there is not much that they can do to prevent the group home from being placed there, but they could let their voices be heard as a neighborhood and look up the local zoning codes in order to be able to register valid complaints whenever there are any code violations like uncut lawns, trash in the yard, a zillion cars with increase in traffic, etc.

In any case, I wouldn't go it alone. People should get a group together and do a little "community organizing" of their own. In this case, it would be "community rescue." The dirtbag politicians need to learn that the people are sick and tired of this crap.

P.S. Gaps Found In Care, Safety In Mass. Group Homes

By Deborah Becker, Maggie Mulvihill and Rachel Stine

Updated December 19, 2012

BOSTON — Valerie Diaz’s worst fears were realized when she opened the door to her Connecticut home in June to find grim-faced police officers on her front stoop.

“They said, ‘Well, we have to inform you that your daughter, Malissie Holloway, was found dead in a closet,’ ” Diaz said. “I just kinda went into shock after that.

“I still can’t understand why,” Diaz said. “I don’t understand why.”

Her 24-year-old daughter, an ambitious singer afflicted with debilitating mental illnesses, had been found by workers at the Somerville, Mass., group home where she lived, dangling from a pipe. Her family is now questioning how closely Holloway was supervised at the home, run by a private vendor ( slumlord? ) hired by the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health.

“I don’t know how she reached that pipe that was like 12 feet in the air. I don’t know how she was able to get a slipknot,” Diaz said. “I have more than my share of questions.”

http://www.wbur.org/2012/12/18/massachusetts-group-homes

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