Our Vision Statement: Disability Rights California will create individual and family supports, chosen and directed by the person with a disability

San Diego Union Tribune

February 12, 2009

Vote on home for people with disabilities affirmed

Council rejects neighbors' protest

By Michael Burge

Bressi Ranch will soon be home for a small group of people with disabilities
Bressi Ranch will soon be home for a small group of people with disabilities

CARLSBAD — A nonprofit agency will move ahead with plans to provide a home for disabled adults in an exclusive Carlsbad neighborhood after neighbors failed to convince the City Council that it erred in giving $800,000 for the purchase.

The council told residents at its Tuesday meeting that it had no problem with the TERI Group buying the house on Alverton Drive in Bressi Ranch, and that disabled adults have the right to live in neighborhoods like anyone else.

The residents' group, The Concerned Homeowners, said it had no complaint with four to six autistic adults living in the group home. They accused the city of wasting taxpayer dollars on an expensive property.

It also said TERI misrepresented itself in its grant application.

“This is not about discrimination. This not about us fighting the Fair Housing Act,” Dana Matas, a member of the group, told the council.

The city gave TERI a $795,000 Community Development Block Grant, which comes from the federal government. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will add about $500,000.

Laura White, TERI's director of development, said the agency will pay $960,000 for the home, which HUD will own.

“We picked this particular community because it's a close-knit community, very family-oriented,” White said.

Matas said Community Development Block Grants are for rehabilitating dilapidated houses, and nothing in Bressi Ranch fits that description.

Debbie Fountain, the city's director of housing and community development, said the city also gives grants to provide affordable housing for those in need, and that was the basis for the grant.

City Attorney Ron Ball said TERI is not violating its contract.

Although the group said it was not against housing young autistic men in its neighborhood, audience members engaged in a testy exchange with Councilman Mark Packard when he asked if they were satisfied that neighborhood children would be safe.

About two dozen group members called out, “No!”

One Bressi Ranch resident told the council she believed the group had shown its true intent.

“I don't want to have our government spend our money wastefully,” said Lynette Ohlson.

“However, if the issue is to find a way to discriminate against a group of people that are protected by a host of federal and state laws, then we have a problem. And based on some of the presentations I've attended I feel like it was more discrimination.”

Council members didn't vote, but all said they supported city staff members and had confidence the grant and contract were in order.

Teri Inc. operates 10 group homes for the developmentally disabled inthe San Diego area, serving 600 clients. White said that purchasing the house will allow TERI to avoid mortgage payments and use its money for operations.