Teen home raises questions in Hanover
About 100 people attended a community meeting Thursday night to learn more about a teen home in the Craney Island Farms community of U.S. 301, Hanover County Planning Director Michael E. Crescenzo said.
Some homeowners raised concerns recently about Healthy Solutions, a foster home on Cudlipp Avenue for at-risk boys ages 12 to 14.
Crescenzo said this week that because the home meets the foster care definition and is in compliance with Department of Social Services regulations, it didn't have to notify neighbors of its existence.
He said yesterday that the county would be checking into whether the owner of the home lives there. He also said phone numbers and cell-phone numbers will be circulated throughout the community so residents can reach the Healthy Solutions staff if there's a problem.
Healthy Solutions Program Director Rahsaan Mitchell yesterday called the Thursday community meeting "tense." At the meeting, he said he and his staff tried to reinforce that the home, which is allowed to house as many as four boys, is a positive place for kids.
"We're not doing anything negative," Mitchell said, adding that two children live at the house now.
The community "didn't even know we were there," Mitchell said.
Contact Holly Prestidge at (804) 649-6945 or
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Reader Reactions
I am all for helping teenagers who need rehabilitation for one reason or another, but I am also under the impression that “deed restricted communities” by federal law are entitled to certain restrictions and mandated guidelines. I am interested to know if when the property mentioned in this article was properly approved of all loan conditions when purchased. Was the property listed to be used for the buyers primary personal residence? Was the property mentioned in the loan qualification process listed as being able to be used primarily as a business and if not are there going to be repercussions for purposely listing false information on a legal document for purpose of purchase? I am also curious to know if JACHO regulations are tagged to this Group Home, which buy all definitions the mentioned program of the property being discussed is truly a “Group Home”, and if not what is the regulating agency for the mentioned business property… Is anyone going to investigate further any more about the situation? The homeowners in that neighborhood have just as much legal right to have been approached for approval before any “business” would be allowed to run out a home in that Deed restricted community-It clearly appears to me that county and government officials are trying to sweep the entire situation under the carpet in the hopes of people in the community to accept that legally the business should have never been allowed to attain property in the neighborhood it is in. If the business is truly going to stay in the middle of a neighborhood filled with families having young children and adolescents there needs to be proper monitoring of the actions occurring of the teens being treated in the home instead of allowing them to walk the neighborhood while smoking and using foul negative comments to the children and adults residing in the neighborhood prior to the recent events—-If incidences like this were not evolving than the residents who already lived in this community may not react with so much intensity to entire situation.
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