Neighbors voice fears about group home

Thirteen-year-old Melani Jackson is unequivocal about why she doesn't want a rehabilitative group home three doors away from her Holladay home.

"I am terrified at the thought of sex offenders living literally next door," Jackson told Holladay City Manager Randy Fitts at a public hearing Thursday. "I want to know that I am safe when I go outside to play with my brothers."

Fitts has heard the complaint before. Holladay residents have been up in arms against the group home since Jerry Jefferies, CEO of Futures Through Choices, submitted a proposal for a group home in July.

The site at 2180 E. Sunnybrook Way would house five male felony offenders, ages 16 to 21, who have low IQs and are in the custody of the Division of Juvenile Justice. The division's contract with Futures Through Choices says the potential residents of the group home "may have displayed predatory or fixated patterns of offending, use of force or weapons in committing offenses" and that they "present a significant risk to the community."

Though the zoning on the lot allows a group home, Fitts said he will decide in the next month whether the facility falls into the exempt category of a use that may cause harm to neighbors.

Aaron Murdock, a member of Concerned Citizens for Safety in Holladay, said the home does present significant harm in a residential neighborhood, particularly because sex offenders would be allowed in the group home.

"It's a young kid and elderly neighborhood, which makes it especially inappropriate because that's the part of the population that's preyed upon by sex offenders," he said.

Murdock also said Futures Through Choices is ill-equipped to handle criminals. While Jefferies has 22 group homes in the Salt Lake Valley, this would be his first facility dedicated solely to adjudicated felons. His other homes are mainly made up of state wards from the Division of Family Services and Services for People with Disabilities.

"Futures Through Choices makes it seem like it's a disability home, and if we don't let them live here, that's mean. The problem is, this is not such a home," Murdock said.

Jefferies does run a home in West Haven that has the same resident description as the proposed home, except the ages range from 12 to 18. Though the home does not have sex offenders, it does have some boys from the juvenile justice system.