By Mark Wineka
Salisbury Post
Salisbury Planning Board members, swamped by more documentation and testimony Tuesday, postponed a decision on the proposed House of Hope re-entry program for just-released prisoners.
Instead, they asked city staff to research and answer questions to a few more items:
– Is the Oxford House in Salisbury, said to be located at 413 S. Institute St., open and operational and how does it compare to the House of Hope proposal for 730 S. Ellis St.?
– Provide a list of all the group care facilities and their locations in Salisbury.
– Find out from the Governor’s Crime Commission how many and where other transitional homes for just-released prisoners are located.
– Are crime statistics reported for this neighborhood last week by Salisbury Police Chief Mark Wilhelm representative of a high-crime area? What are the numbers within the context of other neighborhoods or the rest of the city?
– Determine how N.C. Building Code requirements might change for the 1,500-square-foot house proposed as the residence for up to eight adult men at one time.
The Planning Board continued Tuesday gathering evidence and hearing from supporters and opponents of House of Hope, a faith-based project that recently received a $245,000, two-year award from the Governor’s Crime Commission.
Planning Board member Karen Alexander, noting the strong feelings on both sides, said on one hand is a program in which people are broken and they are trying to be fixed.
On the other are neighbors who could be broken by the same people.
Alexander, Diane Young, Valarie Stewart and Robert Cockerl all said they weren’t ready as Planning Board members to vote Tuesday on whether to approve or deny a special-use permit for House of Hope.
After two additional hours of discussion, the board voted 7-0 to meet again on the matter June 24.
Young pressed for a list of other group care facilities ó especially re-entry homes for former prisoners ó and she also wanted data and examples of facilities that were in dense, residential neighborhoods.
“That would be really nice to know,” she said.
Cockerl said the House of Hope would be an excellent program and has a noble goal, but he needed more time to review all the evidence presented.
“I am so in favor of the program,” Stewart said, but she acknowledged an uneasiness over several items.
The worst-case scenario, she said, would be to approve a special-use permit for the group care facility and then see a neighbor’s child hurt by one of the residents.
Stewart said she remained uncomfortable with the density of the neighborhood around the proposed house and whether the size of the house was adequate for eight grown men and staff.
She also wanted to know more about Oxford House, which House of Hope supporters offered as a comparable program.
Informational material on North Carolina Oxford Houses describes their many locations as designed “for individuals recovering from alcoholism and drug addiction.”
Supporters of House of Hope also submitted information on Exodus Homes of Hickory.
Exodus Homes is a non-profit, United Way agency which provides 87 beds of “faith-based supportive housing” for the homeless, indigent, recovering drug addicts, alcoholics and former prisoners in 10 locations.
House of Hope supporters pointed to data suggesting that prisoner recidivism was reduced when men went through the Exodus program, compared to those who did not.
The nonprofit Westside Community Foundation Inc., originally organized by the Rev. Clary Phelps in 2006 under the name of Gethsemane Missionary Baptist Church Foundation, would run the House of Hope program.
It would provide case management supervision and temporary housing for up to eight adult males between the ages of 21 and 45.
Phelps said the men who would be in the House of Hope are not animals or criminals as many opponents have described them over the hearings. “They’re other human beings,” he said. “… We do ministry where we find it. I’m just trying to do what I feel I have been called to do.”
Another supporter of the program, Tim Ford of East Spencer, said House of Hope would be about opportunity ó the opportunity to give men who want it a second chance. Westside was not trying to upset the community, just trying to make it better, Ford said.
He reminded the Planning Board that prisoners are released into the community all the time and are free to go anywhere they like. House of Hope would cater to former prisoners who are motivated to seek the help and structure of the program, supporters said.
The Rev. Nilous Avery, pastor of Mount Zion Baptist Church, said 547 ex-offenders re-entered the Rowan County community last year and 251 former prisoners have done so this year.
“They’re going to be in our community anyway,” Avery said.
The Rev. Aaron Wells, executive director of the Higher Level re-entry house in Kannapolis, said his Christ-centered program aims at restoration and redemption to help broken lives be put back together.
He said it’s important for Salisbury to “step up to the plate” with this kind of program. The strength of the community is what will make it a good place for the House of Hope to locate, he added.
Several others spoke for the proposed House of Hope, but just as many from the surrounding neighborhood opposed it.
Norde Wilson, a major property owner in the area, said there was “nothing Christian about bringing a van load of criminals” into a neighborhood. “This would kill us, folks,” Wilson said. He said the men need much more space than they would have in the house and urged the foundation to find a more suitable location.
Betty Carli, president of Residents of Olde Salisbury, submitted a petition against the location. “We feel like it would jeopardize a fragile neighborhood,” she said.
Robert Hoke said there is evidence that drugs and prostitution are already in the neighborhood or close at hand and that it would not be sound judgment to put recently imprisoned men near those kinds of temptations.
Jack Thomson, a West Monroe Street resident, said the neighborhood has a lot of good attributes, including the large amount of pedestrian traffic, especially children and students. Inserting the House of Hope in this area would be like placing a prime rib at the gates of the lion’s den, Thomson said.
Contact Mark Wineka at 704-797-4263 or mwineka@salisburypost.com.