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Goodwill’s proposed halfway house worries neighbors
By DAVE SHELTON
| Article published on Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2008 |
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CLEARWATER – Opponents are determined to continue to fight until they have stopped plans to move a halfway house for convicted felons to a former U.S. 19 motel.
For the past four weeks elderly residents have walked picket lines alongside the busy highway, protesting the plans to house more than 200 prison inmates in the former Quality Inn.
The site is in unincorporated Pinellas County and falls within county regulatory authority. It appears to meet land use regulations for its location.
Goodwill Industries Suncoast has signed a contract to buy the motel from the Church of Scientology. Closing is tentatively scheduled for later this month but is pending further negotiations, according to Goodwill spokesman, Michael Ann Harvey.
Scientology used the building to house the families of its members working in Clearwater until last fall. It has been empty since it was put up for sale with its five acres of land.
The state Department of Corrections has a contract with Goodwill for the nonprofit to provide homes for inmates in the final months of prison terms in “non-violent” crimes. Harvey explained the inmates are provided homes, counseling and jobs to help them reenter society. Many are drug addicts who have been drug-free at least during their incarceration, she said.
To participate in the halfway house program the inmates must be drug free and are tested weekly and can be returned to prison if drugs are found in their systems.
“The alternative (to this program) would be for the state to release these inmates directly into the community without jobs, without money and without any new skill sets they need to get their lives back on track,” Harvey said.
She added that Goodwill already has had a similar program near its headquarters on Gandy Boulevard in St. Petersburg since 1967. She claimed there have been no problems encountered by scores of nearby residents there.
Goodwill signed a contract to buy the former motel in November, Harvey said, for about $5 million according to one estimate. John Barous, owner of Bicycle Express, a shop next to the former motel, said he understood the motel was appraised at from $5 million to $6 million and that the sales price was within those amounts.
Harvey said the proposal is not firm. She said that, since signing the sales contract, Goodwill has learned the building’s roof must be replaced and that the structure may not meet current hurricane protection codes for such housing.
But this isn’t deterring the mobile home park residents. The project is still possible and they are afraid for their safety and their property values, according to leaders.
“I’m sure this kind of program is needed,” said Barous on Monday. “But not here.”
Barous pointed to the thousands living in nearby mobile home parks.
“These are people who retired and moved to Florida,” he said. “They are mostly in their 70s and 80s.”
He said his shop has been vandalized already without putting 200 or more prison inmates in rooms right next door.
Barous said Goodwill’s spokesmen have pointed out that the inmates are “non-violent offenders.”
“No one has defined non-violent for me,” Barous said. To an elderly, physically challenged person, any confrontation would be felt to be violent, he explained.
“Who says a person convicted of a so-called non-violent crime isn’t capable of violence?”
Bill Morrow, president of the neighboring resident-owned Donovan’s Mobile Home Park, which contains 150 homes said his neighbors make their way, on foot and on bicycles, to the nearby Tri-City shopping center.
Gangs of ruffians hanging around on the sidewalk will stop them, he said.
“They won’t use that sidewalk at all,” he said.
Morrow said to protect the Donovan’s property owners, all prospective buyers in the park must be approved through an extensive background check.
“We do background checks, credit checks and we turn-down two-thirds of the people who apply to live here because of those background checks,” Morrow said.
Local businesses are also concerned about their employee’s safety, he added.
Morrow pointed to a nearby company that employs more than 500 people, many using public transit to work their two shifts.
“They have a lot of women out on (U.S.) 19 at 2 a.m. waiting for the bus,” Morrow said. “They are going to be terrified.”
Morrow said his neighbors are also concerned with their property values.
“Who wants to buy a house or expensive condo just a quarter mile from that?” he asked.
Morrow and Barous challenged Goodwill to produce disinterested real estate professionals who would say the halfway house would not lower nearby property values.
Morrow said that would be disastrous to his fellow property owners.
Also joining the fray are the 180 residents of the Embassy Mobile Home Park, which abuts the former motel. The park’s manager, Daniel O’Connor, is leading the approximately 800 residents here.
In one part of Embassy, you could throw a bucket of water over the fence and hit the Scientology building, Barous said.
Since word began spreading, dozens of residents of two nearby mobile home parks have protested for two hours every Thursday. They have reached out to the news media, written to Gov. Charlie Crist and met with elected representatives in Largo and Pinellas County.
Barous said Largo officials have pointed out that the site is outside of city limits. But, he said, Largo Fire Department serves the entire area and Largo police patrols the streets.
Harvey said Goodwill has pledged that if the land purchase is completed, community meetings would be held to keep residents informed and to allay their fears.
“Their concerns are understandable,” Harvey said. “If we complete the purchase of that property we will immediately contact the residents associations and have meetings with them to give them all the information they need and hopefully allay their fears.”
Harvey said the deadline for closing was extended from mid-January to Jan. 31 because of the continuing negotiations with Scientology representatives.
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Article published on Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2008
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