Group Home Project Criticized During Citizen’s to Be Heard at WP Council Meeting
A White Plains resident sharply criticized the Institutes of Applied Human Dynamics (IAHD), saying they mislead state officials about the need to move its group home from Mount Vernon to White Plains.
At the Citizen’s to Be Heard segment of the August White Plains Common Council meeting, resident Charles Phillips expressed his criticisms of the executive director of Tarrytown-based IAHD Stanley Silverstein. The agency is seeking to relocate a group home for between 10 and 14 developmentally disabled residents to the Prospect Park section of White Plains. Two years ago the Common Council voted 6-1 against the proposal following special meetings held on the proposal in February and March 2017.
“Stanley Silverstein stood before this Common Council and misrepresented the group home project by claiming that the 22 New York Ave. home was needed because JCCA (Jewish Child Care Association), the owner of the property on which IAHD operates its group home at 165 Esplanade, Mount Vernon, was evicting the 10 developmentally disabled residents who have been living there for over 30 years,” Phillips told the Common Council.
Phillips said OPWDD (Office for People With Developmental Disabilities) granted IAHD preliminary approval and funding for the White Plains project because Silverstein said the residents were on the verge of being evicted from their Mount Vernon residence. “Mr. Silverstein also provided an informational document to the mayor’s office in January 2017 in which he stated, and I quote ‘IAHD attempted to extend the lease or to purchase the home in Mount Vernon, but the current owners have no interest in either option.’” Philips said.
The Common Council voted 6-1 in opposition of this project in 2017 stating at the time, that “the establishment of the community residence in the proposed location will jeopardize the health, safety and welfare of the neighborhood,” Phillips said. He added the Council determined the streets in the neighborhood could not handle the additional traffic, including truck traffic that the home would generate and there are no sidewalks for the area’s narrow streets.
Phillips said an OPWDD appeal hearing was then held in April 2017 with attorney Robert Spolzino representing the City of White Plains. Phillips said according to a transcript of the April 19, 2017 hearing procedures, Silverstein said, “We assumed operation of the home in April 2016. However, there was one critical caveat to this takeover. The residents would need to move out of their current home as the property owner was unwilling to extend the expiring lease, which expires in December 2019.”
Phillips said that after the hearing about the lease the OPWDD had no choice but to allow Silverstein to find another location for IAHD’s group home.
Phillips said that under questioning from Spolzino, Silverstein said his group home was on the verge of being evicted in 2019. They were unwilling to extend the lease, Silverstein told Spolzino, Phillips said.
The Acting Commissioner of OPWDD subsequently overturned the Common Council’s vote against the group home, Phillips said. The Common Council declined to file an Article 78 lawsuit to overturn the decision by OPWDD.
“We now have definitive proof of fraud associated with this project based on my phone interview on Wednesday, July 31 with Judge Ronald Richter, CEO of JCCA,” Phillips told the Common Council on Aug. 5. Quoting from the transcript of his interview with Richter, Phillips said he was told, “I am happy to go on the record and say that at no point in time did JCCA intend to force IAHD out of the Mount Vernon property. It was always our intention and remains our intention to extend the lease for them.”
Phillips said Richter also told him, “We were in good faith you know trying to negotiate with them (IAHD), it appears that they had an intention to also open some units in White Plains and somehow implicated us in that, but I do not know why.”
The property in Mount Vernon has operated as a group home for decades and has been owned by JCCA since 1958, although the group home itself has come under different management throughout the years.
Phillips said this interview proves the eviction story is not true and demonstrates that the Padavan Law might have been defrauded as well as taxpayer funds through Medicaid.
Also criticizing JAHD was White Plains Councilman Dennis Krolian, who noted that only one member of the Common Council supported the group home application and that person is no longer on the Council. “We were opposed to it,” Krolian said.
Echoing comments from Phillips, Krolian said Silverstein mislead the city’s attorney, Spolzino, by claiming the group home was being forced out of Mount Vernon. “There have been no consequences, Krolian said, adding the application should be suspended by the state.
Messages left last week for Silverstein were not returned.
JCCA responded to the situation in a statement last week. “We’re proud that adults with disabilities have had a place to live in dignity for more than 30 years on our property in Mount Vernon, which we plan to make available for that purpose for years to come. JCCA and IAHD have agreed on terms, and we are currently engaged in good faith negotiations with IAHD to finalize a new lease before the current one expires.”
