Neighbors Lambast Proposed Home for Addicts in Yorktown
A proposed “convalescent home” on Underhill Avenue in Yorktown triggered emotional responses from neighbors and Supervisor Michael Grace during last week’s Town Board meeting.
Several residents claimed Fourth Dimension Recovery was misrepresenting what its plans were for an 8,470-square foot, four-bedroom, seven-bathroom home at 482 Underhill Avenue, insisting a facility for drug, alcohol and other addicts would ruin the neighborhood.
“My neighborhood is meant for tricycles and children and trick or treaters and not recovering heroin addicts, cocaine users and alcoholics. It’s not meant for that. They don’t belong here,” asserted Linda Gironda of Glenrock Street.
“It’s hard not to come to the conclusion that the applicant has misrepresented what they’ll be doing. I didn’t move to Yorktown 20 years ago for the Town Board to have this kind of thinking,” said Steve Murphy of French Hill Road. “You have a school (Soundview Preparatory School) 200 yards from this facility. They don’t meet the codes about what they want to do there.”
Fourth Dimension is seeking a special permit from the Town Board for its for-profit operation. A public hearing is scheduled for March 4 at 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall. Prior to that hearing, an informational hearing has been tentatively set up for Monday, February 24 at 7 p.m., also at Town Hall.
Grace maintained the facility was not a drug treatment or drug rehabilitation center, but a place for individuals to “transition” back into their daily lives.
“It’s a very important process so there isn’t a relapse,” Grace explained. “They are committed to sobriety but may need a little more help. Unfortunately the scourge of drugs in the community sucks up highly functional adults and it becomes a problem. Anyone can walk in their neighborhood and find 10 or 15 people with this problem.”
According to Fourth Dimension, it “employs evidence-based best practice intervention methods…We believe in a unique approach to a proven method. Our name expresses our passion, that recovery is limitless…Our purpose is to give those suffering from addiction a solution.”
Grace told residents he knows personally the toll having a loved one with an addiction can take on a family since he has a son with a problem.
“I know what it is on the other end of the equation, so I’m somewhat sympathetic to them,” Grace said. “Nobody is looking to live a life of an addict. It destroys families. It’s a problem in our community, whether you like it or not. This is a problem we all have to deal with. We as a community have to have an intelligent conversation about this issue.”
Two recent deaths in the Town of Cortlandt were attributed to heroin overdoses.
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