Christian groups who had hoped to build a halfway house in a Clyde subdivision have abandoned the plan in the face of overwhelming neighborhood opposition.

“I think many of us felt it wouldn’t work after the neighborhood meeting last week, so I polled the board and we decided to go elsewhere,” said Doug Snure, the chairman Haywood Restoration House board.

The board had hoped to build the halfway house in the Oak Park subdivision in Clyde. The home would have served men who have a history of incarceration, chronic substance abuse or homelessness. Residents would have been screened by the committee before being allowed to become residents of the 8-person home.

But Oak Park residents immediately attacked the plan. Nearly 100 people showed up last week when board members held a meeting in the street in front of the house site, which is only a cinderblock foundation now. The residents were overwhelmingly against the plan, citing the safety of their children and their property values.

Allison Rayman, the president of the Oak Park Homeowners Association, had to quiet the crowd several times during the meeting as some of the residents were openly angry about the proposed home.
The anger, the overwhelming opposition and the publicity combined to torpedo the project in Oak Park.

“We really don’t want these guys living in a fishbowl,” said Snure. “We just don’t think we would be successful in that neighborhood.”

According to Ginny McNair, the co-chair of the Restoration House board, the group is looking for another location in Haywood County. At the meeting last week, board members said having a site close to Clyde, Canton and Waynesville was important so residents could obtain jobs and so volunteers would not have to travel far to get to the home.

“We’re just looking for the right place,” McNair said.

Like several others on the board, McNair said the group is in a difficult position. If it is open and tells nearby residents of its plans, negative publicity could sink any potential site. If organizers are secretive, they earn the wrath of neighbors for sneaking the home in.

“I know a lot felt we were underhanded, but we don’t have a lot of choices,” McNair said.

McNair thinks part of the problem is that people fear things they aren’t familiar with. She has spent a lot of time with potential residents of the Restoration House.

“I know them, so I’ve lost any fear. Other people are just afraid of people who have been incarcerated,” McNair said.

“They’ve just made some bad choices,” she said.

McNair and Snure both said a search was already under way for an alternative site. Snure said he felt confident the board would be able to recoup its investment at the Oak Park site. The setback, however, means an entirely new timetable for opening will have to be established.

The Haywood Restoration House’s board is made up of representatives from several area churches, including First United Methodist of Waynesville, First Baptist of Canton, Mt. Olive Baptist, Living Waters Reflection Center in Maggie Valley, Beaverdam United Methodist Church and Longs Chapel United Methodist Church.

 

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