Buffalo's zoning board has rejected, in a 4-0 vote, a proposal by the group Cephas to build a halfway house on Buffalo's East Side.
The halfway house would house eight former inmates in the Holy Apostles SS. Peter and Paul Church rectory at Clinton and Smith streets. While this address is in a school zone, none of the inmates at the proposed facility are sex offenders.
The zoning board rejected the plan due to concerns in the local community that the presence of a halfway house would have an overwhelmingly negative effect on the neighborhood.
The neighborhood surrounding the proposed site has a very high crime rate and it seems that residents are worried that the presence of more criminals will put the neighborhood over the tipping point into total criminal anarchy.
Get real. Anyone who thinks that a halfway house is going to contribute to crime hasn't thought the situation through.
Maybe calling it a halfway house is the problem. These facilities aren't fluffy happy homes for ex-cons; they are extensions of whatever facility convicts are being released from. Halfway houses are intended to be a halfway point on the way to unadulterated living into communities and society as a whole.
People who staff a halfway house for people with mental illnesses, for example, are professionals in that field, generally supported by another larger mental health organization.
These folks won't be locked in their rooms or made to wear shackles when they're indoors but, by the same token, it's not as if getting the room key gives them free reign about the city.
These are rehabilitation centers designed to ease people who have been living in prison back into society. Why would anyone have a problem with that?
Probably because many are afraid that big scary murderers are going to kill them in their sleep. It's a valid concern. Murderers, as their name suggests, have proven themselves capable of the act of murder.
But if people cannot serve their time and then be accepted back into society, then the justice system should just start sentencing people to life in prison for traffic tickets. If rehabilitation doesn't work, then what's the point?
The community organization that has stymied this project is based on selfishness and xenophobia. In the perverted pursuit of personal safety, residents have driven an even greater wedge between all people.
They should be ashamed of themselves for denying acceptance and the existence of a second chance and embracing fear.
Then again, Clinton and Smith is a bad neighborhood. The ex-cons probably wouldn't have wanted to live there anyway.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
