Decision on CSB Group-Home Rests With County Board of Supervisors NOT Pimmit-Hills Community
By The Frace-Heller Family
Originally published: January 26, 2012
To all Pimmit Hill Moms and Dads:
The Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board (CSB) is refusing to release a list of addresses for its 'group home' facilities in Fairfax County.
A request was made today to CSB officials seeking addresses for CSB's group home properties so that inquiries could be made in the respective surrounding neighborhoods as to just what kind of neighbor a CSB group home actually is; and also inquiring of the surrounding neighborhood whether if neighbors had it to do over again, would they agree to allow CSB to come in and construct a group-home in that respective neighborhood?
A CSB official at CSB's main office categorically refused the request for a list of addresses for CSB's group homes, claiming that to release such a list would compromise "the civil rights" of the residents of those group-homes.
When it was made plain that there would be no effort whatsoever to contact actual residents in any of the group homes on the list, but rather to communicate only with area neighbors in the respective neighborhoods, the CSB official would not budge in refusing access to the information.
ALSO: The same CSB official also revealed that whether or not citizens at the upcoming Pimmit Hills Citizens Association (PHCA) meeting in March vote for or against the construction of a CSB group-home in Pimmit Hills, the ultimate decision legally rests solely with the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and NOT with the Pimmit Hills community.
Very truly yours,
The Frace-Heller Family
Pimmit Hills
Falls Church, VA 22043
Contact via e-mail
Old Milk Barn - Cherri Drive - Pimmit Hills
Old Milk Barn - Cherri Drive - Pimmit Hills
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Thursday, February 9, 2012
The Aging Parolees, Ex-Drug Dealers and Mentally Ill Up the Street (aka The proposed CSB 'group home' at the Cherri Drive milk barn)
CSB Proposes Halfway-House to Replace Park Authority 'Barn' on Cherri Drive
How Politically-Connected 'Not-For-Profit' Execs Make $$$ Off CSB's 'Clients'
Tuesday, March 6, 2012 at 7:30 p.m.
Pimmit Hills Citizens Association Meeting to Vote on This Matter!
Pimmit Hills Senior Center
7510 Lisle Avenue
Falls Church, VA 22043
(Yahoo! Map locator).
(The following letter was emailed to the Pimmit Hills Citizens Association and posted to the Yahoo! Pimmit Hills Moms Group on Sunday, January 22, 2012.)
By The Frace-Heller Family
Originally Published: January 22, 2012
To all Pimmit Hills Moms and Dads,
When one considers the placement of a government-subsidized 'group-home', the real-life connotations for what that means better be thoroughly understood and reviewed with a healthy dose of skepticism.
A facility run by the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board (CSB) in conjunction with the Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority could, according to those entities' own published materials, be used to house "people with intellectual disabilities, mental illness or substance use disorders," including people who are currently "homeless" living on the street.
Despite assurances and promises from county officials to the contrary, this Cherri Drive facility could legally also be used as a half-way house for people who, in the words of CSB's '2011 Housing Needs Report', have had "Interaction with the criminal justice system" -- meaning prison parolees, 'ex'-convicts, 'former' drug dealers, 'ex'-gang-bangers convicted of violent crimes, and 'ex'-sex-offenders.
This type of group living facility may be great for downtown Fairfax, Annandale, Arlington, or industrial sections of these municipalities, but in a family neighborhood like Pimmit Hills, such government-run facilities could, and would, have a deleterious effect on real estate values and quality-of-life.
Right now, for example, Cherri Drive between Magarity Road and Lisle Avenue, where the old milk barn sits and where the CSB facility would be constructed, is family-friendly with children playing on the sidewalk, side yards, backyards and front yards of local homes -- kids otherwise enjoying themselves unfettered to play just about anywhere they want up and down that neighborhood and neighborly street.
Whereas, if parents now have to worry about a county-run group-home catering, for example, to pre-release felons coming from "the custody of the attorney general" (meaning from prison), then the likelihood is that parents will tell their kids to stay far away from 'that place' and just hang out in the back yard.
We know we will.
Further, the proposed facility would be built to handle up to a dozen people and would be providing parking spaces for at least that many vehicles on what is now the lawn surrounding the barn.
The Fairfax-Falls Church CSB and the affiliated Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority is run by the same county political machine which recently tried to ram a school bus maintenance facility down the neighborhood's collective throat when politicos wanted to convert a portion of the playing fields behind the Lisle Avenue Pimmit Hills Senior Center (the former PH High School) into a parking and a maintenance facility housing a large chunk of the county's school bus fleet.
One could easily ask oneself why are Fairfax County public officials so intent on forcing upon Pimmit Hills these kinds of county facilities that have more than a little negative impact on private property values, and do nothing to improve local quality of neighborhood life for which Pimmit Hills' taxpayers pay so dearly in our local property taxes.
No matter what county officials promise now in the way of the types of people who would be residing in the proposed CSB facility, once it is built, CSB can put ANYONE they want to live there. Further, there is NOTHING that the neighborhood can legally then do about it.
Further, the motives for establishing these group homes may on the surface appear lofty, but as with all things political: Follow The Money!
No doubt the county politicos mouth high-sounding explanations rationalizing the need for these group-home facilities and expounding on their grand goals for same, but the underlying economic and political reality is that these facilities are huge cash cows for those who are politically-connected!
It is a fact that CSB and FCRHA contract out to tax-exempt, so-called 'Not-For-Profit' organizations to manage day-to-day operations at these facilities.
The execs who run these NFP's invariably are on the receiving end of six-figure annual salaries with cushy perks and handsome pension, health, medical and dental benefits.
No one should be surprised as well to find relatives and associates of county politicos and the politically-connected employed by these NFP's and in charge of managing these CSB-FCRHA group homes.
Thus, lofty motives aside, the politics behind the creation of these group homes is that these facilities are, at their core, vehicles by which federal, state, municipal, and county monies ultimately funnel down to line the pockets of the politically-connected.
If county officials truly want to make productive and positive use of the Cherri Drive property where the old barn sits, one suggestion would be simply to tear down the old building, plant grass, put in a couple benches, a nice 'jungle jim' and soccer net, and create a neighborhood playground on the near one-acre parcel, the kind of vest-pocket park that has proven successful in other Falls Church locations.
Another suggestion is to put the parcel back on the tax rolls by selling the property at public auction to the highest bidder, who will no doubt build a couple million-dollar homes that would enhance the value of surrounding properties and simultaneously generate tax, water, and sewer revenues for the county.
Think about this: Do you really want living up the block a dozen or so prison parolees, 'ex'-cons, 'former' drug addicts, 'ex'-gang-bangers, former street homeless, and others who have recently had "Interaction with the criminal justice system"?
Also, do you really want to deal with the line of visitors these group-home residents will likely introduce to the neighborhood?
Think: Is this proposed project really worth any of the potential problems its presence may create?
Please: Read CSB's own document, CSB's 2011 Housing Needs Report and read it thoroughly.
While so doing, remember to read between the lines, and more importantly, follow the money!
SEE: '2011 Housing Needs Report', Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board, September 2011:
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/csb/reports/housing-report.pdf
Look: The following are just two examples of the many tax-exempt, so-called 'not-for-profit,' organizations to which CSB contracts out services related to CSB group-homes and CSB programs. (Click on the organization's IRS Form 990 shown below, scroll down to the referenced PDF pages, and please note how many senior executives in these non-profits are taking home annual salaries of six-figures, with cushy pensions and all manner of executive perquisites):
Please come to the Pimmit Hills Citizens Association meeting to vote on this important matter directly affecting your home's current and future value, and the safety of your neighborhood.
Mark your calendar: Tuesday, March 6, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. at the Pimmit Hills Senior Center, 7510 Lisle Avenue, Falls Church, VA 22043 (Yahoo! Map locator).
Should there be questions regarding this important local matter, please feel free to contact us by email via the link below .
Thank you and best regards,
The Frace-Heller Family
Pimmit Hills
Falls Church, VA 22043
Contact via e-mail
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Follow-up and Clarification:
By The Frace-Heller Family
Originally published: January 23, 2012
To all Pimmit Hills Moms and Dads,
In our letter yesterday, we do not mean to imply that CSB itself was specifically involved in the matter of school bus maintenance and parking at Pimmit Hills Senior Center.
What we did state in our letter is the following (in bold for emphasis):
Thank you.
The Frace-Heller Family
Pimmit Hills
Falls Church, VA 22043
Contact via e-mail
How Politically-Connected 'Not-For-Profit' Execs Make $$$ Off CSB's 'Clients'
plus 'Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board responds'
Yahoo! Pimmit Hills Moms Group
Yahoo! Pimmit Hills Moms and Dads Group
Google Satellite Image: 1845 Cherri Drive (Milk Barn)
More Links below!
Post Comments Below
Yahoo! Pimmit Hills Moms Group
Yahoo! Pimmit Hills Moms and Dads Group
Google Satellite Image: 1845 Cherri Drive (Milk Barn)
More Links below!
Post Comments Below
The old Milk Barn at 1845 Cherri Drive in Pimmit Hills
Photo Credit: Frace-Heller Family
(Click on image to enlarge)
Mark your calendar: (Click on image to enlarge)
Tuesday, March 6, 2012 at 7:30 p.m.
Pimmit Hills Citizens Association Meeting to Vote on This Matter!
Pimmit Hills Senior Center
7510 Lisle Avenue
Falls Church, VA 22043
(Yahoo! Map locator).
(The following letter was emailed to the Pimmit Hills Citizens Association and posted to the Yahoo! Pimmit Hills Moms Group on Sunday, January 22, 2012.)
By The Frace-Heller Family
Originally Published: January 22, 2012
To all Pimmit Hills Moms and Dads,
When one considers the placement of a government-subsidized 'group-home', the real-life connotations for what that means better be thoroughly understood and reviewed with a healthy dose of skepticism.
A facility run by the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board (CSB) in conjunction with the Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority could, according to those entities' own published materials, be used to house "people with intellectual disabilities, mental illness or substance use disorders," including people who are currently "homeless" living on the street.
Despite assurances and promises from county officials to the contrary, this Cherri Drive facility could legally also be used as a half-way house for people who, in the words of CSB's '2011 Housing Needs Report', have had "Interaction with the criminal justice system" -- meaning prison parolees, 'ex'-convicts, 'former' drug dealers, 'ex'-gang-bangers convicted of violent crimes, and 'ex'-sex-offenders.
This type of group living facility may be great for downtown Fairfax, Annandale, Arlington, or industrial sections of these municipalities, but in a family neighborhood like Pimmit Hills, such government-run facilities could, and would, have a deleterious effect on real estate values and quality-of-life.
Right now, for example, Cherri Drive between Magarity Road and Lisle Avenue, where the old milk barn sits and where the CSB facility would be constructed, is family-friendly with children playing on the sidewalk, side yards, backyards and front yards of local homes -- kids otherwise enjoying themselves unfettered to play just about anywhere they want up and down that neighborhood and neighborly street.
Whereas, if parents now have to worry about a county-run group-home catering, for example, to pre-release felons coming from "the custody of the attorney general" (meaning from prison), then the likelihood is that parents will tell their kids to stay far away from 'that place' and just hang out in the back yard.
We know we will.
Further, the proposed facility would be built to handle up to a dozen people and would be providing parking spaces for at least that many vehicles on what is now the lawn surrounding the barn.
The Fairfax-Falls Church CSB and the affiliated Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority is run by the same county political machine which recently tried to ram a school bus maintenance facility down the neighborhood's collective throat when politicos wanted to convert a portion of the playing fields behind the Lisle Avenue Pimmit Hills Senior Center (the former PH High School) into a parking and a maintenance facility housing a large chunk of the county's school bus fleet.
One could easily ask oneself why are Fairfax County public officials so intent on forcing upon Pimmit Hills these kinds of county facilities that have more than a little negative impact on private property values, and do nothing to improve local quality of neighborhood life for which Pimmit Hills' taxpayers pay so dearly in our local property taxes.
No matter what county officials promise now in the way of the types of people who would be residing in the proposed CSB facility, once it is built, CSB can put ANYONE they want to live there. Further, there is NOTHING that the neighborhood can legally then do about it.
Further, the motives for establishing these group homes may on the surface appear lofty, but as with all things political: Follow The Money!
No doubt the county politicos mouth high-sounding explanations rationalizing the need for these group-home facilities and expounding on their grand goals for same, but the underlying economic and political reality is that these facilities are huge cash cows for those who are politically-connected!
It is a fact that CSB and FCRHA contract out to tax-exempt, so-called 'Not-For-Profit' organizations to manage day-to-day operations at these facilities.
The execs who run these NFP's invariably are on the receiving end of six-figure annual salaries with cushy perks and handsome pension, health, medical and dental benefits.
No one should be surprised as well to find relatives and associates of county politicos and the politically-connected employed by these NFP's and in charge of managing these CSB-FCRHA group homes.
Thus, lofty motives aside, the politics behind the creation of these group homes is that these facilities are, at their core, vehicles by which federal, state, municipal, and county monies ultimately funnel down to line the pockets of the politically-connected.
If county officials truly want to make productive and positive use of the Cherri Drive property where the old barn sits, one suggestion would be simply to tear down the old building, plant grass, put in a couple benches, a nice 'jungle jim' and soccer net, and create a neighborhood playground on the near one-acre parcel, the kind of vest-pocket park that has proven successful in other Falls Church locations.
Another suggestion is to put the parcel back on the tax rolls by selling the property at public auction to the highest bidder, who will no doubt build a couple million-dollar homes that would enhance the value of surrounding properties and simultaneously generate tax, water, and sewer revenues for the county.
Think about this: Do you really want living up the block a dozen or so prison parolees, 'ex'-cons, 'former' drug addicts, 'ex'-gang-bangers, former street homeless, and others who have recently had "Interaction with the criminal justice system"?
Also, do you really want to deal with the line of visitors these group-home residents will likely introduce to the neighborhood?
Think: Is this proposed project really worth any of the potential problems its presence may create?
Please: Read CSB's own document, CSB's 2011 Housing Needs Report and read it thoroughly.
While so doing, remember to read between the lines, and more importantly, follow the money!
SEE: '2011 Housing Needs Report', Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board, September 2011:
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/csb/reports/housing-report.pdf
Look: The following are just two examples of the many tax-exempt, so-called 'not-for-profit,' organizations to which CSB contracts out services related to CSB group-homes and CSB programs. (Click on the organization's IRS Form 990 shown below, scroll down to the referenced PDF pages, and please note how many senior executives in these non-profits are taking home annual salaries of six-figures, with cushy pensions and all manner of executive perquisites):
1. Pathways to Housing DC, Inc., Washington, DC;
Website: http://www.pathwaystohousing.org/content/city_washington_dc
SEE: IRS Form 990 (Fiscal 2010); PDF pgs. 7, 25:
http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments//2010/371/464/2010-371464353-0770510e-9.pdf
2. PRS, Inc., (formerly Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services), McLean, VA;Hopefully, all the information above has whetted your appetite to seek out more information about the halfway-house/group-home that CSB wants to construct in the Pimmit Hills neighborhood on the site of the old Milk Barn.
Website: http://www.prsinc.org
SEE: IRS Form 990 (Fiscal 2010); PDF pgs. 8, 26:
http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments//2010/540/880/2010-540880899-069300dc-9.pdf
Please come to the Pimmit Hills Citizens Association meeting to vote on this important matter directly affecting your home's current and future value, and the safety of your neighborhood.
Mark your calendar: Tuesday, March 6, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. at the Pimmit Hills Senior Center, 7510 Lisle Avenue, Falls Church, VA 22043 (Yahoo! Map locator).
Should there be questions regarding this important local matter, please feel free to contact us by email via the link below .
Thank you and best regards,
The Frace-Heller Family
Pimmit Hills
Falls Church, VA 22043
Contact via e-mail
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Follow-up and Clarification:
By The Frace-Heller Family
Originally published: January 23, 2012
To all Pimmit Hills Moms and Dads,
In our letter yesterday, we do not mean to imply that CSB itself was specifically involved in the matter of school bus maintenance and parking at Pimmit Hills Senior Center.
What we did state in our letter is the following (in bold for emphasis):
"The Fairfax-Falls Church CSB and the affiliated Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority is run by the same county political machine which recently tried to ram a school bus maintenance facility down the neighborhood's collective throat when politicos wanted to convert a portion of the playing fields behind the Lisle Avenue Pimmit Hills Senior Center (the former PH High School) into a parking and a maintenance facility housing a large chunk of the county's school bus fleet."In addition, regarding the various promises and assurances being made by CSB officials in their recent 'sales presentation' to the PHCA board and residents (and in any future presentations made by ANY government officials) trying to sell Pimmit Hills residents on accepting the Cherri Drive group home, here is what we wrote regarding "promises" yesterday (again, in bold for emphasis):
"No matter what county officials promise now in the way of the types of people who would be residing in the proposed CSB facility, once it is built, CSB can put ANYONE they want to live there. Further, there is NOTHING that the neighborhood can legally then do about it."We hope this helps to make clear what we stated in our letter.
Thank you.
The Frace-Heller Family
Pimmit Hills
Falls Church, VA 22043
Contact via e-mail
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