Robert Mills neighbors upset with plans for transitional housing program

Some Robert Mills neighborhood residents were left stunned Tuesday by the city zoning board’s decision to permit a transitional housing program for troubled youths to open in their area.

The Columbia Board of Zoning Appeals voted 3-2 on Tuesday to approve the plans after more than an hour of discussion from neighborhood residents and representatives from Mental Illness Recovery Center Inc., the applicant. The plans do not have to be OK’d by City Council, Columbia Zoning Administrator Brian Cook said.

The proposed facility at 1819 Hampton St. would house eight to 12 unaccompanied youths aged 17-24 while they receive counseling and transition to independent living, according to MIRCI’s application to the zoning board. The facility would be staffed 24 hours a day, the plans show.

Several Robert Mills neighborhood residents spoke at length at the meeting, saying they have enough problems with drug and prostitution in the area and don’t want another facility for at-risk people.

“We cannot continue to be a repository for halfway houses,” said Elizabeth Marks, president of the Robert Mills Historic Neighborhood Association.

Neighborhood residents also expressed concerns about the facility’s effect on noise, nearby property values and safety, saying they haven’t heard whether the at-risk youths would have criminal records.

“One thing I do know, they weren’t placed there because they skipped Sunday school,” Lue Bluefort, who lives in the neighborhood, told the panel.

Julie Ann Avin, MIRCI’s president and executive director, said the facility would not be a halfway house.

“MIRCI provides the support that assists folks in establishing a productive lifestyle in the community. With this particular group, we’ll provide educational support,” Avin said. “We’ll work with the Boys and Girls Club, with other groups like Midlands Tech – places that we can help folks finish their education, maybe do an apprenticeship and then be able to transition out and live on their own.”

Avin said the program won’t specifically target youths who have had run-ins with the law but that it’s possible some of them might have.

“What we’re looking to do is assist young men that are coming out of foster care, that are aging out of that, the people that will be referred to us by the school districts for needing that stable place to come home to every day and study and finish school and get a job and have that opportunity,” Avin said.

Bluefort said she was “stunned” and “upset” by the board’s ruling. She said she walks through that area all the time and that she’s concerned about the safety of “our children and our grandkids.”

“You just never know who’s going to be there, who’s going to greet you and the visitors that are going to come in and out there. It just can’t be a positive thing,” she said.

Marks said there’s an “oversaturation” of similar facilities in the area. Several homeless shelters and transitional facilities are in or near the neighborhood.

“This is a social experiment that’s being imposed on our neighborhood, and we are the ones who are going to know whether or not it is a success or a failure,” she said.

Avin said she was happy the board ruled in MIRCI’s favor but that she is concerned because she wants the facility to be a “good fit in the community.”

“We want to work with the neighbors, so I’ll be reaching back out to the neighborhood association and offer for them to tour some of our other properties that we own,” Avin said.

This story was originally published November 10, 2015 at 5:13 PM.