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Neighborhood questions new group home

Date: 3/19/2012

March 19, 2012

By G. Michael Dobbs

news@thereminder.com

SPRINGFIELD — The people who attended the meeting last week of the McKnight Neighborhood Council understood there was nothing they could do to prevent another group home from coming into their neighborhood, so they used the time with officials from Southern Middlesex Opportunity Council (SMOC) to better understand the new facility.

SMOC will be opening "Pax House" at 175 Bowdoin St. to serve as a home for 12 women who are "living in recovery from substance abuse as they move towards self-sufficiency," according to materials distributed that evening.

The first residents should be arriving within 30 days.

Because the group home has an educational component, city officials and neighbors cannot question the location of the program under the provisions of the Dover Act, Walter Kroll, the president of the neighborhood council, explained.

SMOC is a community action agency that serves Ashland, Bellingham, Framingham, Holliston, Hopkinton, Marlboro, Northbridge, Natick, Southborough and Wayland, but operates programs, according to its website, in more than 80 communities in the Commonwealth. In Springfield, the Open Pantry is a SMOC agency.

Jerry Desilets, SMOC's director of Policy, Planning and Community Relations, told the board and residents, "We want 175 Bowdoin St. to be a good neighbor."

Charles Gagnon, SMOC's chief operating officer, addressed a recent incident in Easthampton in which a man living in a SMOC managed facility allegedly stabbed his girlfriend to death.

The story had raised concerns among McKnight residents and Gagnon said the incident was "a very serious event." He explained the city of Easthampton had requested SMOC to run the long-time city-owned facility that was home to people seeking a sober environment for recovery.

"We've never had this kind of incident before," Gagnon said.

Under questioning from the council members, Darlene Assencoa Mazurek, the director of Housing Operations for SMOC, explained women seeking to be in Pax House would have to apply to SMOC and have their criminal history examined.

She added that murderers, arsonists and sex offenders would be automatically barred from the facility.

Each woman would be paying $95 a week in rent and would be seeking employment. Each woman would have her own room and key and receive her own visitors, who would not be screened by the two SMOC employees managing the house, Assencoa Mazurek said.

Each woman will have an individualized plan written for her extended recovery, Gagnon said.

There is an extensive list of rules governing behavior at the house from a drug and alcohol policy to a requirement to attend Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings to no overnight guests.

According to Gagnon, the average stay in similar facilities operated by SMOC is six to 18 months, although some women have stayed more than two years. Ninety-five percent of the women entering the program have been sober for at least three months, he added.

"We adhere to a lot of tough love," Gagnon said.

There will always be one SMOC employee, either the resident manager or the case manager at the site at all times, Gagnon explained.

While answering a series of more than 40 questions written by neighborhood residents, the SMOC officials said the agency paid $230,000 for the house and so far invested $150,000 in it to upgrade plumbing and electrical issues.

Resident and local historian James Boone asked that SMOC consider undertaking work to the exterior of the building, including repairs to the roof and the trim.

"The house draws attention to itself because of its condition," Boone said.

Residents also expressed concern about a dumpster for the building and asked if the SMOC management would consider participating in the city's trash removal plan instead. They said they would discuss it.

The building has five parking spaces, another issue for residents who anticipate the facility will create extra traffic and parking demands on the narrow street. Gagnon said, "We will make sure we are clear."

If a resident is asked to leave the program, Gagnon explained that a placement in a more suitable program would be sought.

"We're not going to make anyone homeless," he said.

Gagnon said the home and its residents would want to be part of the council and its activities.



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