Council evaluates home care facility request previously denied by planning board
A request was made at the Kinston City Council meeting on July 20 to amend an ordinance to allow the opening of a home care facility.
The meeting began with a discussion of budget items. A motion was then approved to open a public hearing request. The public hearing opened with Adam Short, Director of City Planning, reading a letter from Franky Edwards.
Edwards requested the ability “to provide a much-needed service for residents that cannot live with or have no family or cannot afford to live alone. Some may be functioning impaired and need assistance.”
The letter went on to describe that staff at the facility would meet the needs the residents are unable to meet on their own. The staff would provide care for residents with chronic disabilities including dementia and other age-related illnesses.
The facility Edwards would like to open is within a half-mile of another facility, which violates an existing ordinance. Section 7.16.1 states family care homes must be located no closer than one-half (1/2) mile from any other family care home. Family care homes are defined as a home with support and supervisory personnel that provides room and board, personal care and rehabilitation services in a family environment for not more than six resident persons with disabilities. The request before the City Council was to change the ordinance to provide Edwards the ability to open his facility.
“The planning board made a recommendation in denial of the request,” said Short.
According to North Carolina’s G.S. 168-20, it is the public policy of the state to provide persons with disabilities with the opportunity to live in a normal residential environment.
During the council meeting, Council Member Sammy Aiken said, “With an aging population, those types of facilities are needed but you need to space them out.”
G.S. 168-22 further states a family care home shall be deemed a residential use of property for zoning purposes and shall be a permissible use in all residential districts of all political subdivisions. No political subdivision may require that a family care home, its owner, or operator obtain, because of the use, a conditional use permit, special use permit, special exception or variance from any such zoning ordinance or plan; provided, however, that a political subdivision may prohibit a family care home from being located within a one-half mile radius of an existing family care home. A political subdivision is a separate legal entity of the State which usually has specific governmental functions.
Council Member Robert Swinson asked if “the facility in question had an elevator or if it was handicap accessible.”
The Fair Housing Act makes it unlawful to make a dwelling unavailable to a person because of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, or disability. While the statute is in accordance with the laws of the state, the concerns raised by the leadership team had to do with the potential community impacts.
“The implication that it will have on the entire city when it comes to neighborhoods being changed to allowing multiple units of care facilities, we’ll have some concerns and questions,” said Council Member Krystal Suggs.
G.S. 168-21 defines persons with disabilities, like those in Edward’s request, as a person with a temporary or permanent physical, emotional, or mental disability including but not limited to an intellectual disability, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, autism, hearing and sight impairments, emotional disturbances and orthopedic impairments but not including persons who are dangerous to others.
“They are definitely going to have a lot of concerns, also to include for law enforcement responses in the inner city for what may occur… or could occur,” said Mayor Don Hardy in response to Edward’s request.
It is an unlawful discriminatory housing practice to refuse to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices, or services, when these accommodations may be necessary to a handicapped person's equal use and enjoyment of a dwelling according to North Carolina’s State Fair Housing Act.
The public hearing on Edward’s request will be open until the next council meeting. No commissioner spoke out for the request to amend the ordinance that would allow Edwards to open a family care facility to offer housing for those with disabilities.
