CHARLOTTE, N.C.,None — Neighbors don't want a halfway house for former prisoners in their part of west Charlotte, the Camp Greene area.
They met Tuesday night with the one group interested in opening the house, a religious nonprofit based in Columbia, S.C., the Alston Wilkes Society. The group says it picked the spot on Remount Road because it's zoned the correctly and that the offenders will be close to relatives, important for their rehab. They also say the site will house 15 people at a time and no one convicted of violent crimes.
Alston Wilkes outreach coordinator Erin Roberts said she's a convicted felon herself and that the people who would be assigned to the halfway house "are highly supervised [and are watched by] cameras at all times." She added, "We have very little trouble."
But neighbors say their neighborhood is struggling and that this won't help.
Camp Greene neighborhood president Brian Fincher said it's been an ongoing battle to improve the neighborhood.
"We've been working hard in this neighborhood for years trying to get it cleaned up and, then, you're throwing prisoners right back in the neighborhood to do the same thing again," said Greene.
Another group runs a halfway house two miles down Remount Road from the proposed site. Officials said that one will close if this one opens. The state needs to sign off on Alston Wilkes' plan to open the facility. Some neighbors say they're writing letters to the state agency, hoping it will deny the proposal.