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Group home files rights complaints against town

By: Diana Mehta and Will Campbell

Thursday, Aug. 9, 2012 at 8:55 AM | Comments: 0

The Canadian Press archives Group home Abbey Dawn Place in Napanee, Ont. (CP)

NAPANEE, Ont. -- The owners of a group home in southeastern Ontario that caters to adults with mental disabilities have filed human rights complaints against their town.

Kendra Henley, who runs Abbey Dawn Place in Napanee, Ont., said the filing of the applications to the province's Human Rights Tribunal marks the latest escalation in a dispute which has been simmering since last year.

Henley claimed her licence was revoked after town officials sided with area residents who do not want the home in their neighbourhood.

"This should not be tolerated in 2012," said Henley, who runs the home with her husband. "We really need to stop treating people differently because they look a little different than us."

The Town of Napanee's chief administrative officer, Raymond Callery, confirmed it received the complaints, but declined to comment.

Henley, 50, opened the home in 2010 after retiring from a career as a nurse. At the time, she registered her facility and received necessary regulatory approvals from the town.

She said the home is for semi-independent adults with mental disabilities like Down syndrome and schizophrenia.

"It's almost like a foster home for adults," Henley said. "The clients live with our family, they eat with us, we eat the same food, we sleep in the same house, we're always under the same roof."

After a few months of operation, she said, the home's residents started to complain about the way they were being treated by members of the community. "People were staring at them and they were reluctant to go outside," said Henley. "They were being called names."

At one point, Henley recalled a night last fall when eggs were thrown at her clients.

"It got to the point where none of the clients would, and still will not, go out into the front yard, they won't go into the side yard," said Henley. "They're too afraid, they don't want to be watched by the neighbours.

"They've been almost put in seclusion."

Henley pointed out that extensive risk assessments are conducted before clients are admitted into her facility, which is located in a middle-class neighbourhood.

She said neighbours filed complaints about the home's clients.

At a heated council meeting in October 2011, minutes of the session show the town's mayor sided with residents opposed to the home, saying the neighbourhood was the wrong spot for it. Nepanee Mayor Gordon Schermerhorn was not available for comment on Wednesday.

-- The Canadian Press

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