New Hope Residents and City Council Members Opposed to Group Homes in their Neighborhoods

According to an investigative report by KSTP, city council members and neighbors of a New Hope group home, used a tragic situation to revoke the rental licenses of two local group homes.

After one of the group home residents allegedly overdosed, neighbors called for action, and the city was able to label the incident as “disorderly behavior,” grounds for rental license revocation.

The decision displaces almost ten vulnerable adults.

From KSTP’s report:

“There was a time when some people, they were put in non-residential settings, right? Somewhere that was a building… like a hospital, where they could be better taken care of. The state legislature needs to get back to that,” [Jonathan] London [New Hope City Councilperson] said. “They need to realize not everyone can live next door in a residential setting.”

Barnett Rosenfield, the state’s Ombudsman for Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities, disagrees.

“Everybody, with the right kinds of services and supports as might be needed, is able to live in the community,” he said during an interview with 5 INVESTIGATES. “I think it is a problem when your operating assumption is there are some people that just shouldn’t be here, and they should be in some other kind of institutional setting.”