By MARIA DEL MORAL
maria@newsroom.byu.edu
Receiving county approval for a youth group home in Spanish Fork canyon has been more difficult than the applicants expected because of neighborhood residents' concerns.
For more than a year, Heritage Youth Services has been fighting an uphill battle with Utah County and the city of Spanish Fork, to establish a group home in Spanish Fork Canyon, said Lynn Laftin, associate director of Heritage Youth Services.
'We are not trying to put a bunch of criminal kids up the canyon,' Laftin said. 'We just want a program for youth that are abused, neglected and don't have a place to live.'
Sterling and Thayes Ludlow are the property owners of the proposed group home in Spanish Fork Canyon who would supervise 12 boys, Laftin said.
Although the proposed group home has met health, fire and zoning codes, which are required for a license to manage the group home facility, it has not met the approval of residents who are concerned about housing troubled youth in their neighborhood, Laftin said.
The types of youths that will be placed in the Spanish Fork group home will be those who have been neglected, abused and have been pulled out by the state from their difficult family situations. These are not youth who have criminal records, Laftin said.
Edith Lasson owns a 100-year-old ranch in Spanish Fork canyon that is near the facility that would be used for the group home.
'A group home will destroy a way of life,' Lasson said.
Jerren Flinders, a resident in Spanish Fork canyon, said that they have already too many group homes in that area.
'Another group home is an overdose of that kind of activity in this area. We already have a group home here and that is probably enough for us.' Flinders said.
However, the residents will lose the battle of keeping out group homes off their neighborhoods because groups homes are protected by the Fair housing Law, which was passed in March 1989, said Alan Hayward, Quality Assurance Manager, from the office of licensing at the Department of Human Services.
'If they meet all the rules by the state or county, then it does not matter what the public says,' Hayward said.
The State Department of Youth Correction Services encourages youth rehabilitation programs to be placed in a neighborhood setting, Stettler said.
'We prefer to have a group home in a neighborhood setting ... because it is best for the kids to integrate back to society (upon leaving the group home). They need to learn how to live as another citizen.' Stettler said.
The county will re-hear the proposal Jan. 4 in room 1400 of the County Administration Building in Provo at 5:30 p.m.