so why don't you start okay so good morning we operate a supported housing home for men of
recovery protected under the ada and fair housing act and we are requesting a reasonable accommodation
for group living uh for up to 10 men to live in a in this house um to live in a structured peer
supported and drug-free home okay um so why don't you um
do you have plans for it drawn drawn up one of your shows your plans first
okay so this is the first floor this is our floor plan so why don't you walk us through what the
first floor looks like so the first floor we have when you first walk in is a vestibule
um and can you speak more into the microphone can can barely hear you pull the mic towards you
when you first walk in it's a small vestibule and then to the left is a living room and um
to the right of that is some stairs and then we have a living area and then straight back
is a kitchen, and then we have an extra room
in the back, and it's three upstairs. We have
three bedrooms. The second floor, we have three
bedrooms and a bathroom, and then the third floor, we have two bedrooms.
Here's some pictures of
how it looks before and after. This is how it looked prior
to me getting some renovations done.
We have two bathrooms, one on the first floor, one on the second floor.
Full shower.
So these are before pictures.
And this is how it looks now.
Is this in operation now?
We're licensed by the state.
We have one we cover.
This is the kitchen and the living space.
this is the
bedroom upstairs to the back
oh it's a
bathroom on the second floor
it's another room
so six bedrooms total
and this is the basement
so we have our license
we're licensed by the state
and I'm certified to give
medication
and we kindly ask
that we have your support as we request
the proposed use group living
1630 Willington Street
so that we may provide
stability, safety and recovery
support to the community. Finally, we would like to close with the lyrics of Diana Ross
song, reach out and touch someone's hand and make this world a better place
if you can. Thank you. Could you tell us what happened when you went to the RCO?
We went to the RCO and
the church, the guy at the pastor said he had a hard time
voting. There was no instructions on how to vote. So we wasn't
So we wasn't sure if everybody voted on there because it wasn't indicated how to vote.
sure if everybody voted on there because it wasn't indicated
And so the people from the board, they didn't.
They said no.
We don't know who else said no, but they said about five people or something.
All right.
Questions from the board.
How long have you been operating this program?
Since July of this year.
And then you currently have 10 individuals already living in the program?
Just one.
Just one.
And then what's the plan for staffing for?
So as we fill up, we have like, so far it's three of us.
I have, you know, us two and then a cousin.
But when it gets filled up, we have people, you know, on board that want to work there.
Right now, you know, it's just one tenant in the air.
Just one tenant.
And then explain a little bit of the setup.
So there's five bedrooms?
it's six bedrooms but one that we're using as an office okay and uh five bedrooms uh for yeah
the tenant and then how long are the tenants typically like what's your expectation for
length of stay so we're taking people coming straight out of treatment after 30 days so they
normally stay about six months to a year okay and then what are the sort of because it just looks
like that we like most of the pictures we saw with the exception of the bedrooms it looks like those
or like cot beds is there furniture in the rest of the house what are like how like what else is
on site to support their living um it's just like the small dressers and in bed is closet space
that's it what about public space like is there the living room and the kitchen and enough seating
for the seats and people okay and then how are you handling food on site like are they doing
there is this are they completely independent yes for now what does that mean oh well yes they are
okay so this is not it's not assisted living no no so you're really like just providing temporary
housing yeah okay and they're coming through a state like a city or state referral program
so far yes but right now we don't have funded or anything so these are people that coming from a
program and come in there and they pay on
their own. The tenants
pay on their own.
Got it.
And so are most of them
like still working or
like employ or
get this a bill. So this isn't with any
like federal subsidy. There's no program.
This is all sort of like a private
agreement between you and the individual
tenants. How are the leases
set up?
It's on here.
and are these are these uh tenants uh in in a recovery program are they in recovery or
they be in recovery programs and what are what a wrapper are there any wraparound services that
you provide or that are provided by any other organization yeah they all we all they all
referred out so they all go to like um you know meetings and get their mental health um services
outside and then how how are you able to confirm that if it's a private agreement
well the guy that we have now um he go north board street so um well i understand that for
your single tenant but like once you have 10 people i think i'm i'm more so concerned that
like one at fully fully occupied how is this like mint how are you going to manage the 10 tenants
where they all might be what programs they might be in and then what other provisions in place
should something go wrong right like because things don't always go as you intend the more
people you have the more instances you have for that to happen and you've got a private lease
agreement what is like you know would you have to wait if a person for whatever reason you know
relapsed and they're in your house would that one it's potentially a trigger for your other
residents but would you have to then go through a traditional uh eviction process to try to get
them out so I'm just I'm trying to understand like kind of operationally what this in the lease
agreement that they find in the packet that we have and you're operating this under an LLC
because then this is a private property a non-profit what's your what's your background
in this in this field or is do you have are you a social worker or a substance abuse
abuse counselor, or what's your background in this type of facility or treatment?
counselor or what's your background in this type of
Basically, I'm in a coalition. I have a mentor, and we're in a coalition where we
meet once or twice a week. But I have a passion for this work. My mother was on drugs. My family
grew up on drugs. So this is a way I can get back and help. So that's my mission. That's why I'm
doing this but uh i work in a hospital uh in a pharmacy uh full-time and and then i do this too
but um i just have a question for clarity so do you just want to have a rooming house or do you
want to run a program i do want to run a program okay but but with each person getting the individual
a lease?
Well, after we, once we get approved
through this and be able to get funding and all that kind of stuff, you know,
then it'll be, basically it won't be a room
thing anymore once we get, you know, funding. But right now they have to pay because we don't have
you know, any funding or anything for them for now.
So, I guess, okay.
okay so you're saying that you work full-time correct and then so who will be
there yeah i have a cousin and then my daughter and me and i work overnight we have a house you
know the house manager be the overnight and my cousin he works and then he's he helped us too
he worked there but i work overnight so i'm there a lot in the day okay so you have two you you're
there, and there'll be two
other assistants who
will be. My daughter and my cousin.
And this is a, this is
24 hours a day, seven days
a week kind of thing.
Correct?
You gotta be sworn in.
Could you please
could you please state your
name and spell for the stenographer? My first name is
Alicia, A-L-L-I-C-A, and my last name
is Harold, H-A-R-O-L-D.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth. I do. Please proceed.
Let me tell you what my concerns are.
Okay, so then you can, all right.
So what we have here is a, you're not fish, you're not thou, shall we say, all right?
A lot of group homes, they have some kind of organization that they are attached to.
Right.
They have a funding source because they are this nonprofit that gets funding, say, from organizations that may place residents with a facility like a group home or what have you.
so you're not you don't have any of those kind of things and it also means that it's a little
hard to get a sense of where you're getting your where you're going to get your clientele from
how they are going to be uh supervised during the time that they are with you and that kind
of things so that's where we're kind of having our problem and so and can you just indicate on
the record what your relationship is to this property or the project so i'm her daughter and
partner in the business okay all right thank you all right um so can you state your first question
i'm sorry i just want to make sure it's it's more about how is how is this all gonna um work
Right. Yeah. So because, you know, we don't we're we're we're a little unsure about where you're getting your clientele from.
The. Yeah. The the how they're going to be supervised while they're there. Right.
OK. How you're going to support the activities of the house, you know, like right now you say you have no funding.
So, again, you are depending on whoever these residents are to pay whatever the rent is so that you can at least provide the housing for them.
But they are also, you know, presumably you're going to provide some sort of support services of some sort.
so you have to be able to afford to do that right so you know because you're not attached to any
other like group or whatever the question is how is that all going to be worked out or managed or
have you come up with do you have a business plan do you have some way that you are going to
operate this facility yes so basically we've we got two properties we've had this property for
old for a year and it just become an occupier. We've been maintaining a property. We both work
and it's just becoming occupied.
We've been maintaining the property.
We both work full-time.
full-time. I work with a mental.
I work with a mental health program, and she works at a hospital,
so we've been funding the property on our own.
We've been able to afford it.
The people that come in, they're on Social Security
or they're required to work because no one can stay in the house all day
for 24 hours.
We do have video surveillance because this is a level 2 home,
so they're not required to be babysat.
We just have to check in every day, which we do.
It's required every other day.
We go there every day between me, my mother, and my cousin.
And then we also have video surveillance.
We know when they're entering.
We know when they're leaving.
And then we also want to add a police log to check in every day also.
But we've been maintaining this property without rent assistance or anything like that because I'm a realtor and I have a job.
And we get clients.