Jackson Free Press

Some residents of the Fondren community are steadfastly protesting the building of a 40-bed crisis intervention center for the mentally ill in what they consider their backyard.
After considering several sites in the city, the Hinds County Mental Health Commission settled on 33 Franklin Court site in Fondren. The first time the Commission decided to build at this site was in 2001. Then a group of Fondren residents fought against the live-in center being built in their neighborhood.

Wilson Carroll, an attorney who lives on Old Canton Road, spoke out then, and hasn't changed his mind. "We all agree that there is a need for this type of facility in the community, but it is not a good idea to have it in a residential neighborhood," Carroll said this week. He suggested that if it is not too late to have the construction plans reversed that the building where the city hall has been temporarily would be ideal for the facility. "It was the Youth Detention Center and has the space for the type of facility that is in question," Carroll said. That building, at 400 Silas Brown, is not near other residences or residential services.

Kim Schaffer, communications director of the National Low Income Housing Coalition in Washington, D.C., disagrees. "Obviously there are many problems with segregating people who have a mental health problem in a part of the community where people don't live. … There are moral and ethical issues with putting somebody who has a disability at such a disadvantage of not being able to live where their friends and family live, without grocery stores or access to other necessities of life, or job opportunities. It really has to make a community pause and say: what are our values when something like this comes along?"

Despite continuing opposition from some residents, last Monday the Hinds County Board of Supervisors approved the request made by Health Commission Chairman Bill Griffin to use $106,528 of his budget as a down payment for nearly six acres of land at the Franklin Court site. In total the land and the building will cost more than $1 million. Carroll said he is also opposed to the "astronomical price of the land and buildings," money he believed can be better utilized.

Margaret Harris, the executive director of Hinds Behavioral Health Services, said opponents are using misconceptions about the facility to argue against it. "The people that will be treated in this facility will be cared for in a secure environment and will not be hanging around the building or moving out into the community. They will be released to their families and go back to their homes," she said.

Harris said that the need for this type of center is great. "There are several incidents in Hinds County where people in need of psychiatric help are turned away or receive improper services," she said. The only options for people with these acute mental problems are either to be hospitalized in a regular hospital, which is expensive, or to be sent to a holding cell where they will not receive appropriate attention.

A variety of treatment options will be available. Nurses and social workers will watch closely over the patients, Harris said, not only while they are in the care of the center but when they are discharged as well.

Not all Fondren residents consider the facility as bad news for the neighborhood. Lee Jackson, 37, of Hartfield Street, located right across from the Franklin Court site, says that he would not mind a crisis center coming into the neighborhood. "As long as it is safely monitored and people aren't hanging around, I am fine with it. Mental illness is something that you can't really hold against people," Jackson said.

Schaffer said problems aren't likely if the facility is well-managed: "A community includes all types of people. In reports where there's initial opposition to this type of development, what we see overwhelmingly is that once the facility is built and people are living there, it becomes an accepted part of the community."

Carroll also worries that approval of this one will open the door for many more treatment facilities to pop up around Fondren—like halfway houses.

On the contrary, Harris said. "It will be a beautiful facility that will improve the look of the community rather than the vacant lot that is currently there."

Schaffer, who helps produce the monthly NIMBY Report to track instances of "not in my back yard" outcries around the U.S., said there tend to be two reasons for opposition to such facilities: "It tends to be a fear of the unknown and a fear of property values (falling)." Her organization studies whether property values decline in neighborhoods with such community-based facilities. "The overwhelming answer is that they do not," she said.
She also had a warning: "This is a legal issue. The Fair Housing Act says you cannot discriminate against people based on their disability by zoning them out or otherwise fighting homes like this," she said. "The city can put itself at risk of a lawsuit."

Camp Best, executive director of the Fondren Renaissance Foundation, said his organization isn't taking sides in the dispute. "We have stayed neutral on the subject from the very beginning," Best said. "The best thing to do is to wait to see what will happen and hope that it will be the best thing for the community and the city."

The commission is waiting for a building permit to be approved.

Previous Comments

ID

64291

Comment

A good column today by Eric Stringfellow in The Clarion-Ledger picks up on this topic and adds some details we didn't include: The Hinds County Mental Health Commission is proposing a 40-bed crisis intervention center on Franklin Court across West Street from the Fondren North Renaissance community's western border. Homeowners in 2001 united to block the center's construction, one of three sites abandoned after public protest. Plans to locate the center on Wilson Boulevard near Central Mississippi Medical Center and on West Capitol Street across from Barr Elementary School also drew opposition from businesses and residents. The Franklin Court site got a reprieve after the U.S. Department of Justice questioned whether the City Council violated the Americans with Disabilities Act when it denied a rezoning petition to allow the center. Council members should be sensitive to Fondren. The area's enhancement efforts are outstanding and should be a model for other neighborhoods. Fondren is one of Jackson's most diverse and desirable areas. Its value should be preserved. Full column

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2004-09-23T08:31:17-06:00

ID

64292

Comment

Hi folks. Nice job, Ayana. I'd like to point out, though, what appears to be an internal contradiction. Margaret Harris tells us there won't be an influx of potentially violent mentally ill people: "The people that will be treated in this facility . . . will not be hanging around the building or moving out into the community. They will be released to their families and go back to their homes." On the other hand, Kim Schaffer strongly suggests there will be: "There are moral and ethical issues with putting somebody who has a disability at such a disadvantage of not being able to live where their friends and family live, without grocery stores or access to other necessities of life, or job opportunities." So, which is it? BTW, the Gulf Coast mental health crisis center is located in a rural area, not close to any residential areas, and by all accounts works wonderfully. With regard to being a "NIMBY," I was a NIMBY about strip joints on State Street a long time ago, when we were told that these business had a constitutional right to operate wherever they wanted. Nevertheless, we fought the good fight and won. That's why those businesses no longer operate in Fondren, while plenty of other great businesses (like JFP) do. I was also a NIMBY about toxic waste dumps in Mississippi back in my days in the A.G.'s office. Being a toxic waste NIMBY is a logical reaction to environmental racism, where rich states and businesses dump their hazardous garbage in poor areas with large minority populations (i.e., Mississippi). So, it's not always a bad thing to be a NIMBY. Finally, thanks for emphasizing that I support the creation of a crisis center. It's critical to that we provide the mentally ill with the help they so desperately need. Wilson

Author

Wilson

Date

2004-09-23T14:31:17-06:00

ID

64293

Comment

I find it sad that Fondren residents oppose the mental health facility in their neighborhood but seem to have no problem with Mississippi's busiest abortion clinic right in the middle of the area. Some residents take issue with the posters showing aborted babies (in the spirit of the mother of Emmett Till?) and would rather close their eyes to this current day atrocity. Jackson needs revitalized neighborhoods but they need to be places that have a place for all - born, unborn, well and in need of treatment. Let it be true of Fondren.

Author

Pat Cartrette

Date

2004-10-25T09:41:43-06:00