Community Board 14 Votes Against Home for Developmentally Disabled

A proposed group home for the moderately to profoundly developmentally disabled was voted down by Community Board 14 at their first meeting of the fall on Monday night at Edward R. Murrow High School.

The home, intended to be built on an empty lot on East 22nd St. at the northeast corner of Duryea Pl., would be an eight-bedroom, two-story building equipped with an elevator to house nine disabled adults, some of whom require the use of an elevator. It would be managed by Federation Employment and Guidance Services (FEGS) and the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD).

However at a public meeting regarding the new facility, which was attended by Board members and residents of the area, concerns were raised about an existing FEGS-managed facility on the same block at 19 Duryea Pl.

"This public hearing was quite interesting," said CB14 Chairman Alvin Berk, "Because we had quite a representation from members of the immediate community who did not vocalize any objection to this facility, but did raise issues about FEGS management of a facility at the adjacent site at 19 Duryea Pl., a very different kind of facility."

Berk said in that facility FEGS operates two programs for 24 adults, aged 18 and up, diagnosed with mental illness, and 15 men, aged 18-24, in a young adult program. That facility had never been brought before CB14 because it's not administered by OPWDD but by the New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) to submit their facilities to public hearings, Berk said.

"We didn't get an explicit acknowlegement that there was a lack of supervision at the 19 Duryea Pl. facility," he said, "However the Board members present at the meeting did ask very detailed questions about the level of supervision at the proposed facility. And I believe that it would be fair of me to characterize the Board members as having been satisfied by that commitment to the level of supervision."

He said that the residents of the new facility would require a very close level of supervision, and would only be allowed outside while accompanied by a staff member.

However it was the manner in which FEGS dealt with security issues at the current home that raised concerns.

"I think one of the main concerns was a lack of supervision outside that they can't provide," said District Manager Shawn Campbell.

She said that the home's strategy for handling safety issues was to call 911.

"This is not an institution, it's a home. So there's no program to supervise residents if they, for instance, step outside to smoke — because they do have to step outside to smoke cigarettes. And there was not a commitment to supervise them out there because there can't be," she said.

Despite Berk's impression that the public were largely concerned with the existing home, Member-at-large Florence Valentino disagreed.

"I was at that meeting, and I got a very different impression," she said.

"The people who were in attendance there from that block were there because they were unhappy about the prospect of another residence on their street," she said.

"The administration of the home that exists there claimed that they were not aware of the fact that the house was not well-supervised," she said. "I tried to point out that that was a failure on their part, not a failure of the people in the residence. I also pointed out that it was their responsibility to know, so they couldn't claim that they didn't know when it was their responsibility to know."

She said that putting the new residence next door, on a residential block, was "absolutely unconscionable."

When the Board voted on whether to approve the new facility it was defeated with a preliminary vote count of 12 yes, 11 no, and 13 abstentions. For it to have passed a majority of Board members would have had to vote yes.

Other business

Also in attendance was Deputy Inspector Eric Rodriguez of the NYPD's 70th Precinct. He reported that the 70th has experienced three more robberies in 2012 compared to 2011 and discussed a earlier in 2012.

He said that stolen items have routinely been electronics and reminded the public to be careful with their smartphones, particularly when using them in public.

"When you have your ears on you're not paying attention to your surroundings," he said, referring to headphones.

He also said that texting while driving was something the NYPD would be increasingly targeting.

Finally he said that precinct's public meeting would be moved to Sept. 27th.