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Newhouse, a shelter for abused women and their children, wanted to open a group home in the Scarritt Renaissance Neighborhood for unaccompanied teenage girls.
However, when the neighborhood association turned down Newhouse’s request June 6, it created a snag in their plan.
To operate a group home in the Scarritt neighborhood at 523 Gladstone Blvd., Newhouse needed a special use permit and special zoning to allow for group living.
Scarritt Renaissance Neighborhood Association wasn’t keen on the idea.
“We had lively discussions at the board level and at our monthly neighborhood meetings about this,” Scarritt Renaissance Neighborhood Association President Adam Schieber said. “The people that were opposed to this weren’t opposed to providing help to young girls, they were opposed to turning our backs on what we did five years ago – reversing our decision to downzone.”
Five years ago, the neighborhood association paid approximately $5,000 to downzone the area, which stipulated only single families could occupy the neighborhood homes.
“It was a tedious process,” Schieber said of downzoning.
Years ago, property owners turned a number of mansions into medical care facilities or apartments, he said.
“We don’t want that (now),” Schieber said. “Those homes were never taken care of properly. They get run down and they don’t get loved like they would with a family.”
Asked why Newhouse wanted to locate a teenage girls group home to Gladstone Boulevard, Newhouse President and Chief Executive Officer Leslie Caplan said, “The reason we wanted it in Scarritt in particular is there are some homes that are large enough to accommodate the girls and also, we were looking for a neighborhood that was strong, there would be a feeling of family and a neighborhood they (girls) could do community service in and so forth.”
Newhouse would have leased the home from Fox Family Foundation, a charitable corporation, and renovated the home, she said.
“In the past, we’ve expended a lot of money on capital improvements at every location we’ve been at,” Caplan said. “We felt like we had something to contribute to the neighborhood.”
However, Schieber questioned the choice of locating the home in Northeast.
“Why not locate somewhere where the girls would have a better neighborhood environment than (nearby) Independence Avenue and a better chance for success?” Schieber said. “The Northeast is not beaming with opportunities for jobs, for education, to get a step up in life. That’s not to say it’s impossible, you just have to apply yourself harder. But, if there’s already a group of girls that’s at-risk and have special needs, why put them in an area that’s not set up for success?”
Schieber added that Northeast is already saturated with social service organizations.
“It’s to the point where we have more people that have needs than people who can offer ways to help them out,” he said. “When you have an over-concentration of people who need jobs or services, you stagnate that area. We have become the dumping grounds for all those social services in Kansas City. When you look at concentration, it’s not dispersed evenly in the city.”
Caplan said Newhouse will rescind its request to the city’s Board of Zoning Adjustment for a special use permit in Scarritt Renaissance.
Newhouse isn’t giving up, however.
“We’re definitely going to look at a different location,” Caplan said.
Once it finds a location, Newhouse plans to house up to 16 unaccompanied girls ages 15 to 21 and in addition to housing, will provide food, clothing and counseling. To live in the home, girls must be attending school; have a job, are working toward obtaining employment or are involved in community services; be responsible for upkeep of the home and grounds; and have no social visitors.
The teenagers cannot be abusive or use drugs or alcohol, and cannot play loud music or disturb the tranquility of area neighborhoods.
They will also be required to support the furtherance of the neighborhood association’s objectives and attend therapy sessions and meetings with a case manager.
“These are girls that were homeless, but really motivated and want to be in school. They just want to move on with their lives and not worry about whether or not they are going to have a place to sleep that night,” Caplan said.
Some of the girls were removed from abusive homes or homes with parents who abused drugs. Others ran away.
Since Newhouse already serves homeless and battered women, the organization wanted to intercede earlier and help the girls improve their lives, she said.
As for the house rules, she said, “They have to be raised like kids from good families who give them guidelines and structure, yet some freedom and teach them how to be a part of a family.”
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