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Updated: 08/14/2009 7:16 AM KSTP.com |
Controversial Foster Home Pulls Out of Centerville After protests from Centerville residents, the owner of a company that runs foster care homes for teens with serious behavioral and sexual issues says he won't open a facility in the northeast Metro suburb.Over 100 residents filled a front yard near the home on Hunters Trail Drive Thursday night to protest Zumbro House—a Woodbury-based corporate foster care company. The group purchased a foreclosed home in the northeastern Metro suburb in hopes of opening a home for three 16-year-olds and a 19-year-old. The owner and president of Zumbro House, Chris Onken, faced the crowd and made a compromise: No one with behavioral or sexual problems will move into the home. "Individuals with developmental disabilities have every bit of a right to live there as you do," he argued. He says the newly purchased home has already been vandalized, and Onken says he’s concerned about the safety of his clients. He tells 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS he’s decided to pull the plug on the project. "There’s obviously still a lot of anger involved here with the potential for developmentally disabled people to live in this neighborhood. We don't want to subject them to that—to live among folks that don't want them there," Onken explained. He says this is the first time in his company's history they've ever backed out after buying a home. Zumbro House had planned to open the 24-hour care facility in Centerville around Sept. 1, with plans to open a second house shortly after. Onken says both are now off the table. |
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