Brooklyn Center Residents Raise Group Home Concerns
Residents on one Brooklyn Center street say they’re concerned about the number of group homes in their neighborhood.
“We’re getting quite a few [group homes] and we’re having problems,” resident Sherry Higgins told the Brooklyn Park City Council on Feb. 26. “I had a resident steal — come up to my house and steal from me, try to get into my house.”
Multiple residents living in the 6300 block of Indiana Avenue told CCX News they were worried about nearby group homes.
Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) records show that at least three group homes are located within a two-block radius. Two of those group homes are located on the 6300 block, according to MDH records. Another is in the 6400 block.
One homeowner, who declined to appear on camera, said she considered moving out of the neighborhood after a “string of incidents and threats from a [group home] resident.”
Brooklyn Center Has High Concentration of Group Homes
Ginny McIntosh, Brooklyn Center’s planning manager, says the city has one of the highest concentration of group homes in Hennepin County. Brooklyn Park also has a high concentration.
There are 159 licensed group homes within Brooklyn Center city limits.
The term “group home” is a colloquial phrase that isn’t used by the Minnesota Department of Human Services (MDHS) or MDH.
According to McIntosh, most so-called group homes in Brooklyn Center are either licensed as assisted living facilities by MDH or as community residential service facilities by MDHS.
This type of housing has state protections, and as a result, cities have less discretion in regulating them.
In some cases, cities can apply rental licensing requirements to regulate group homes. However, a recently introduced bill in the Minnesota legislature could exempt group homes from licensing requirements.
McIntosh said that 45 percent of all MDH-licensed assisted-living facility group homes in Hennepin County are located in Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park.
The city of Brooklyn Center is asking the state to take a closer look at laws related to group homes.
“We’ve made a request that the legislature examine the impacts of the established regulations that limit the abilities of municipalities to regulate group homes,” McIntosh said. “And to determine if those regulations are having a disproportionate effect on low-income communities and communities of color.”
As for-profit companies, group home owners will typically look for inexpensive properties to purchase, McIntosh said.
“Single-family affordable housing neighborhoods are attractive locations for investors,” she said. “We’ve seen a huge change in these last few years in Brooklyn Center where the number of group homes that we have and the concentration of these homes in low-income neighborhoods reduces home ownership opportunities and wealth accumulation for our residents … it is a strain on our local emergency response agencies, as well as city staff. Rental licensing, police, fire, as they tend to draw service calls more often.”
The city of New Hope is facing a federal lawsuit after stripping two group homes of their rental licenses.
