Evergreen home’s multiple renters addressed at MCDD meeting
By Bruce Walton
BOARDMAN
Complaints about multiple renters in a home on Evergreen Drive were addressed briefly at a meeting of Mahoning County Board of Developmental Disabilities on Monday night.
The women in the home at 234 Evergreen Drive, Poland Village, are all developmentally disabled and cared for by guardians and caretakers round the clock. And though village zoning restricts the neighborhood to single-family homes, the renters are protected under the Fair Housing Act, which prevents housing discrimination.
Neighborhood residents made it clear Monday night that they have nothing against developmentally disabled people, but are concerned about the possibility of lowered property values, the screening of caretakers who work shifts at the home and how the renters were able to evade the single-family zoning restriction.
In an earlier interview, the property owner, Frank Divito of Poland Township, explained that the renters were placed there through a residential services corporation.
Poland Village Solicitor Anthony D’Apolito had suggested at a council meeting earlier this month that the neighbors and property owner attend the MCBDD meeting to help resolve the matter, but the board offered no guidance.
“We really never get involved where an individual chooses to live,” said Bill Whitacre, MCBDD superintendent. “That’s between them and the landlord or their guardian and the landlord, but we have no involvement in that relationship.”
Neither the residents nor Divito spoke, but Cornersburg resident Linda Cope, 72, defended the renters during the public comments segment of the meeting. A former employee at a guardian agency, Cope said she came to address the issue after reading a recent Vindicator article.
“I felt that [the neighbors] had a full head of steam and that they were probably going to show up here because they wanted these people removed,” she said. “And when you start talking about ‘these’ and ‘those,’ you’re separating it. Instinctively, you’re saying, ‘I am better than they are.’”
Whitacre said he hopes through education that all parties can come to a positive resolution.