MI- Saginaw neighbors rally against halfway house

5-2-2008 Michigan:

If Saginaw residents angered about an under-construction federal prisoner halfway house want to stop it from opening, they'll likely have to file a petition at the Saginaw County Circuit Court, city officials say.

In the meantime, an angry contingent of community members say they may picket City Hall, the halfway house's construction site and even homes of City Council members.

More than 150 residents of a northeast Saginaw neighborhood attended a Wednesday meeting to discuss the source of controversy -- a federal prisoner re-entry home going up on Norman and Leon Scott -- and came away with ideas to put pressure on city leaders to halt construction permanently.

Duane Walker, executive director of the Saginaw Housing Commission, said he wants to organize a group of residents to picket in front of City Hall and on 11 acres that his agency owns directly across the street from the halfway house site if construction continues.

He didn't indicate when such protests could begin -- "sooner rather than later" -- but said about 200 people have shown interest.

"We can set up a bar and grill," he said. "They can't do nothing."

Walker said he's exploring the legal ramifications of picketing City Council members' homes and may resort to those methods if something isn't done soon.

"People seem to forget when it's not in their backyards," Walker said.

John Stemple, the city's zoning coordinator, said legal action likely is the citizens' best hope for a remedy.

"They would have to have some basis (for stopping construction) other than, 'We don't want it in our neighborhood,' " Stemple said.

Councilman Amos O'Neal, who spoke at the gathering, said city officials have negotiated a temporary shut-down of the home's construction until the completion of a City Hall "fact-finding mission" that will explore if Planning Commission officials followed guidelines when they approved the project last fall.

If crews begin building again, Walker said he will launch the protest plans.

Construction has progressed since the controversy erupted Thursday, when neighborhood leaders discovered crews beginning work on a site that would house 38 former prisoners as they make the transition back to society.

Sunday, the site consisted of heavy construction equipment and open field. By Wednesday night, it appeared workers had laid a concrete foundation.

Legal options

One of residents' chief concerns is the location of the halfway house one block west of Arthur Eddy Academy, school to 454 kindergarten-through-eighth-grade students.

Stemple said the city's ordinances do not prevent construction of such a facility near a school, although he wasn't sure if any state or federal laws existed that might prove applicable in Circuit Court.

At Wednesday's meeting, O'Neal talked of changing city ordinances to limit similar projects.

O'Neal, who lives in the northeast neighborhood, said he wants city leaders to alter Saginaw's laws to increase the checks and balances of approving such sites.

Much of the crowd expressed anger at city officials, accusing them of fast-tracking the initiative to avoid a citizen-led outcry.

City officials have denied such allegations, but O'Neal said the fact-finding should reveal the truth.

He said, regardless of what he discovers, public forums should precede the approval of similar sites in the future.

"When I heard about this, I was just as upset as you," he said. "We should have had a public meeting to say, 'This is what we're considering,' and then let the community decide."

O'Neal hopes to provide the fact-finding results at the 6:30 p.m. Monday City Council meeting at City Hall, 1315 S. Washington.

Walker also encouraged residents to sign up to speak during the meeting's public comment session, and many voiced their desire to follow that suggestion with applause and approving shouts.

Not the first

Two other halfway homes are in Saginaw, Stemple said, and an agent at one of those facilities attended Wednesday's meeting.

Charles Braddock, a former Saginaw police officer, said he serves as a coordinator at Arete Community Corrections Center, 709 Lapeer, which opened in 1989. The facility houses federal prisoners during their transition back into society.

Stemple said Arete eventually will close if and when the house at Norman goes up -- possibly as early as this summer.

The company that coordinates Arete lost a bid to Bannum Inc. of Florida to run a Federal Bureau of Prisons-sponsored halfway home in Saginaw, Stemple said -- a fact Braddock said he didn't discover until April 10.

"Nobody told me I was going to be out of a job," Braddock said. "Nobody gave me a heads-up."

He said employers informed him Arete would close July 31. It's not clear when the new facility would open.

Braddock spent 10 minutes describing Arete's facility and inhabitants. He said no assaultive offenders or murderers have received shelter there. Some sex offenders have roomed there, but that only those convicted of Internet-related sex crimes -- such as soliciting sex with minors over the Web, he said.

"Not one person who has set their hands on a child," he added.

Braddock said he didn't know if the same standards would apply to a Bannum-run operation.

Saginaw's second halfway home, Tri-County Adjudication Program at 2300 Veterans Memorial Parkway, is near the same neighborhood as the Norman initiative, Stemple said. He said that facility houses inmates from the Saginaw County Jail.

Under construction

The Norman site puts neighborhood plans in jeopardy, Walker said.

Housing Commission, neighborhood residents and religious leaders are working on plans to revitalize property across the street, he said, including Unity Park and the adjoining 11 acres the commission owns.

For now, the entire 30 acres remains "underused," he said. A field and a rarely-used basketball court sit there.

Walker said community members are scouting multimillion dollar donations and grants to develop housing and park equipment there.

He hoped to come up with a plan to present to the City Council in an effort to take control of Unity Park for those purposes. Neighborhood leaders also hoped to begin volleyball and baseball leagues in Unity Park during the summer.

The halfway house "renders that land useless," Walker said. "At some point in time, the Northeast Side of Saginaw needs to get some consideration."

That was a message that echoed throughout Wednesday's meeting at the Housing Commission's headquarters, just one block west of the construction site.

About 100 people sat in fold-out seats in the center's community room. Others lined all four walls.

Mary C. Washington, president of the 100-member Northeast Saginaw Neighborhood Association, called for the audience to take a proactive role in the city government -- even when there isn't a controversy to tackle.

"We cannot let them play with us," she said.

O'Neal encouraged residents to apply for city planning positions. ..more.. by Justin Engel