THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 7, 1997 TAG: 9701070218
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH SIMPSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 81 lines
For 12 years, the Seton House has provided a shelter for runaway girls to patch their lives back together.
Now Seton House wants to expand those services to boys as well, at a group home about a five-minute drive from the girls' Seton House on North Lynnhaven Road.
St. Aidan's Episcopal Church is providing the land for the shelter at King's Grant Road and Edinburgh Drive, free of charge, as a community outreach effort. But Seton House needs a conditional use permit to build the group home in a residential area, which some neighborhood residents have opposed.
Officials from the Seton House and St. Aidan's will meet with the civic leagues in the Kings Grant neighborhood tonight to discuss concerns. The issue goes before the Planning Commission on Wednesday.
Walter F. Bankowski, who lives across the street from the site of the proposed shelter, said about 300 names have been collected on a petition opposing the permit. He said neighbors are concerned about an increase in traffic, and about the encroachment of a group facility that departs from the single-family-home residential area.
He said parents in the neighborhood also are concerned that youngsters at the shelter will ride the school bus with their children, and might have a negative impact on them.
``We moved here with the understanding that it would be a residential area,'' said Bankowski, who has lived on Edinburgh Drive since 1964. ``We just feel let down.''
Kathy Jeffries, the director of Seton House, said the shelter would house 10 boys age 12 to 17 for stays that average two weeks. While the clients may have family troubles, they usually have not been involved with the police or court system, she said. Referrals usually come from parents, school counselors, or friends and relatives of the youngsters.
``We've been here for 12 years and we haven't had a problem,'' said Jeffries. ``There's never been any damage done or a neighbor who's complained.'' Seton House's existing shelter, which houses up to 10 girls, is located on St. Nicholas Catholic Church property.
Jeffries said traffic would not increase much at the proposed shelter since the youngsters are not allowed to have cars. She said the teens are strictly supervised and are not allowed to roam the neighborhood.
The proposed building also has been designed to fit in with the neighborhood, according to Jeffries. Virginia Beach vocational-technical students have already worked on the design of the shelter and will take on the center's construction as a building project.
Among residents' concerns is a clause in Seton House's proposal that says youngsters facing police charges may be allowed to stay there, if properly screened and approved by Seton House officials.
``I have a problem thinking about my kids sharing a bus with troubled youngsters like that,'' said one parent, who didn't want her name used.
Jeffries said the Seton House proposal was being changed this week to specifically screen out youngsters who have felony charges pending. However, youngsters with such charges as school truancy, running away and curfew violations would still be accepted.
Of 198 girls who were served last year at the existing Seton House, charges were pending against five. One charge was for a curfew violation, another was for school truancy, two other charges were for running away and one charge was for theft.
The shelter is scheduled to open in July 1998, using funds from a Housing and Urban Development grant and community donations. ``We feel very strongly that there's a need to care for these boys,'' Jeffries said.
Paul Hogg, the rector of St. Aidan's, has written a letter to the Planning Commission supporting the shelter. ``Many noble charities pull people from the river of despair, but a few charities go upstream and prevent them from falling in,'' he wrote. ``Seton House is one of those rare programs that does this by saving adolescents and parents before they make irreversible mistakes.''
Bankowski, the resident since 1964, said most of the people opposing the proposal believe in the concept of the shelter but just don't want it in their neighborhood.
``It's like arguing against motherhood and apple pie,'' he said. ``I think there should be an area in the city for these shelters, but there should also be areas just for residential neighborhoods.'' ILLUSTRATION: CHARLIE MEADS
The Virginian-Pilot
The Rev. Peter Hogg of St. Aidan's Episcopal Church shows Kathy
Jeffries of Seton House the proposed site of the boys' shelter.