South Sacramento Neighbors Voice Concerns Over Proposed Halfway House
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - The welcome mat is not being rolled out in one south Sacramento community where people are upset that dozens of federal felons could be moving into a halfway house.
Those south Sacramento neighbors were speaking out Monday night, making sure county planning commissioners know they already have enough criminals and therefore hate the thought of a new housing center for 50 federal felons in the process of being paroled.
"Once again, the south area is going to be the dumping ground for everything no one else wants to deal with," community activist Tim Boyd said.
Boyd grew up in the area. He and others are insisting that the area is already challenged and would be too much temptation for parolees with drug and theft convictions.
"You're putting them in the same area and the same type of predicaments and the same kind of swirl, and it's too much in one concentrated area," Boyd said.
But the owners of the proposed center, which would be put in on the corner of 43rd Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, see it differently.
"In our areas that we have current programs, we have not experienced any of the concerns that the neighbors have discussed," said Bari Caine-Lomberto of Behavioral Systems Southwest. "We're good neighbors. We have a community advisory board. We would ask the community to come in."
And after looking it over, county staff agreed.
"We feel like it's not going to be a detriment to that neighborhood," a county official said.
The planning commission was set to vote on the proposal Monday night, but the vote was tabled instead after residents' objections.
