09-28-09 Common Council Meeting Agenda & Packet

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Area Board of Zoning Appeals -September 2, 2009 did receive a preliminary approval from the Health Department that the facility is up to standards and up to code to run such program. Indiana has an I.C. code 465 to which we must adhere to as far as qualifications of operating a group home. The entity Hope House was setup because the State mandates that you setup an organization or an entity to operate a group home, therefore, Hope House Organization was setup. The administrator has to have a masters degree, which we have copies of transcripts from Chicago State with a masters degree in community Counseling and a minor bachelors' degree in Psychology. Per Indiana code in your paperwork towards the middle of the page you'll see that those are the state requirements. As far as the house manager and the parents there, they would be on site 24/7, however, the Board would not hold meetings there, the Board would not regularly visit the location. But there is an amount of supervision that is required by the State so Mr. Danch had just a little bit mis-communicated. I will be a facilitator working with a State agency so from time to time there will have to be some type of communication at the location. Probably less than once a week. Most of the visits can occur off site. The State, you'll see an annual review. Setting up such a home they are strict in what they expect. I have no doubt on getting final license, pending the outcome, finally of getting the Special permit, that we'll be able to meet all of these qualifications. So to make a long story short, in your packet you have the credentials, you have the nursing licenses, you have the degrees that are required by the State to operate this program. The girls initially, we applied for ages 8 to 18, due to concerns that we heard from our neighbors resulting from an open house that we held, we decided to change the age requirements to 10 because if you have girls under the age of 8 you need additional direct care staff. So we're trying to limit the amount of people at the home, limit the amount of traffic and took into consideration what our neighbors had to say about that. So that is why you'll see some paperwork says 8-18, some says.10-18. We changed it based on the community and the feedback we were getting. MR. URBANSKI: I have one question if I may? On the Board members of the HHO, are most of them local? Meaning St. Joseph County, Indiana or out of this area? MS. GURROLA: The majority are out of the area. I have been, and there's been some mis-communication about where I reside and what I do. I'm originally from Chicago and I've maintained a residence here since the end of 2005. I was traveling back and forth to do what I do and had a spin out on the expressway, so at that time I decided it would make more sense, since I'm spending two or three days a week in the area, to purchase a place to live because I come and go every week on a regular and that's been the case since 2005. MR. URBANSKI: So you're local but the majority of the others are from out of this area? MS. GURROLA: Correct sir. That is true. We had to set the Board up to meet the State requirement to have an entity to oversee the running of the home and then the State would oversee that the regulations are followed as stated in the code. MR. URBANSKI: Question that I have, is how did you chose the location where you are at or where you propose, Garland Circle? MS. GURROLA: That was a home that was purchased by my family. So I just decided to.convert it and use it as such since I already had ownership of. When the property was purchased it wasn't for the intent of a group home. That just came about later on. 13