CB 10: Keep group home in S. Bronx

An agency planning to open a full-fledged group home in Waterbury Estates received a alternative site location from Community Board 10.

According to many members of the Pelham Bay and Waterbury-LaSalle community, the proposed group home for 3407 Bruckner Boulevard that would service three to seven developmentally disabled individuals is a bad choice for the “consumers” who would reside there.

At a public hearing held at the Greek American Institute’s auditorium on Tuesday, October 7, board members from the neighborhood suggested that the agency proposing the group home, Community Action for Human Services, think twice before uprooting their clients from the south Bronx and relocating them to Pelham Bay.

“CB 10 made a resolution at the meeting where the applicant was instructed to pursue housing opportunities within Community Board 2,” stated Andrew Chirico, a CB 10 board member. “Because the handicapped adults involved in this relocation presently reside in a rented apartment in that community, and it would be in everyone’s best interests to keep them in familiar surroundings.”

Chirico said that the board was informed that the building the group home occupies in CB 2, which includes Hunts Point and Longwood, has become unsafe, prompting Community Action for Human Services to buy one of the many unsold homes in the Waterbury Estates development for their permanent residence.

Chirico said that it would benefit everyone if repairs could be made to the apartment building the group home currently occupies, so the residents could remain in a place they have come to call home.

A non-binding resolution from the board on the fate of the home may be voted on as soon as the next general meeting, taking place on Thursday, October 23 at Pilot Cove on City Island at 160 Pilot Street.

CB 10, group home