Residential program irks neighbors

A residential program for parents recovering from drug or alcohol addiction is to open this summer on Winter Street in Framingham. But neighbors argue that the town is already providing more than its fair share of social services, and they are asking the Board of Selectmen to limit such programs.

About a dozen residents attended a recent selectmen's meeting to speak out against the project.

''I'm very concerned about the safety of my neighborhood," Patti Coen told the selectmen.

The South Middlesex Opportunity Council, or SMOC, confirmed last week that it plans to purchase the former nursing home at 517 Winter St.

The social-service agency hopes to close the deal within a couple of weeks and open the new facility in a month or two, according to its director of planning, Jerry Desilets.

He said the adults in the program would be ''committed to recovery, employment, and eventually moving out to get their own place." He said he couldn't yet say how many people would be involved, but parents would be allowed to reside there with their children.

The typical family would be a single parent with one or two children, and the family would stay from six months to a year. About 40 patients were housed there when it was a nursing home, he said.

''We've been operating an identical program for over 15 years without any neighborhood concern or opposition or complaint," said Desilets, referring to a program on Clinton Street that houses six to eight families at any given time.

He said residents have legitimate questions about staffing and how the new program would be run, which the SMOC is happy to answer.

But the agency is facing a neighborhood that is worried and angry.

''We should be able to say Framingham already has enough properties not paying taxes," Mary Westwater, an Ardmore Road resident, said during the selectmen's meeting. ''We don't need to import more charity cases."

Many of the buildings in town where social service agencies operate their programs qualify for a tax exemption under state law, since the programs have an educational component. The SMOC owns 82 properties in town, according to Desilets, and pays taxes on 48 of them.

After the meeting, the residents, who have formed a group called STEPPS, or Stop Tax Exempt Private Property Sprawl, submitted several questions to the Board of Selectmen, including: ''What are the criminal histories of the residents we will have living in our town?" and ''How many Level 1, 2 or 3 sex offenders are now living in Framingham, and how many will be transferred here as a result of SMOC's accommodations for them in the future?"

Selectmen are on familiar turf. A number of residents have aired concerns during the past year over the concentration of social service agencies in town. The town is home to a number of programs for homeless people, those recovering from substance abuse, and people with mental illnesses or developmental disabilities.

Selectman John Stasik said he is generally supportive of providing social services. But he said he is also concerned about local control.

Towns like Framingham should have more say, not necessarily to kill a project but to regulate things like size and location, he said.

Stasik said it makes sense that Framingham would draw such services because it has public transportation and more affordable housing than neighboring communities. But if the town is providing services to the region, then the region should compensate the town for the extra costs of police and fire services and schools, he said.

The selectmen are trying to arrange a meeting with the heads of several agencies to talk about some of the overall concerns, he said.

Selectman Dennis Giombetti said the board must figure out what oversight powers it has when an agency is opening or expanding in town.

''I have real empathy for the neighborhood," he said, referring to the Winter Street project. ''That's a big building. I have problems with the scale of that project."

Katie Murphy, chairwoman of the Board of Selectmen, put the Winter Street neighbors on the agenda for last week but said she doesn't think there's much the board can do. She said town officials need to do some research to see how local government and the agencies can work together to address residents' concerns.

She also is sometimes frustrated by those criticizing groups that she believes are doing good work.

''Framingham does have an inferiority complex," Murphy said. ''We're always putting it out there, 'Why would anyone want to live here?' You kind of reap what you sow. . . . I think it's a very good town. . . . I think I'm surprised sometimes that people put it down."

Lisa Kocian can be reached at 508-820-4231 or by e-mail at lkocian@globe.com.