State, local proposals to address problems caused by juvenile group homes in region

Officials with the city of Dayton and state lawmakers are discussing ways to address the growth of juvenile group homes in Dayton and Montgomery county.

The county now contains more than a third of juvenile group homes in Ohio, putting strain in law enforcement and court resources and raising concerns about the health and safety of kids in the system.

Kyrsten French, Dayton’s zoning administrator, said she believes Dayton has seen an increase in group homes because of low housing costs in some areas of the city and a lack of local zoning regulations that govern these facilities.

“The local zoning answer to, ‘Can I open a residential group home at this house?’ in Dayton has always been yes without qualification, simply because our zoning code does not have any additional standards governing them in the way that other codes often do,” she said.

Some group home staff said Dayton has more of these facilities than other places because there are not local zoning laws that restrict them.

French said Dayton is considering zoning changes to require that group home residential facilities cannot be less than 1,000 feet apart.

French said Dayton also proposes an occupancy limit that’s based on the size of the home and the number of bedrooms. This would try to ensure that properties that become residential facilities are suitable for that use.

French said these potential changes would not apply to existing group homes.

But she said the city also is considering passing performance standards for residential facilities.

This could include requiring operators to provide the same information to the city as they do to the state and mandating that these facilities must provide adequate supervision to their residents at all times.

State legislation proposed

An Ohio House Bill sponsored by state Reps. Andrea White, R-Kettering, and Phil Plummer, R-Butler Twp., seeks to create new standards for group homes that house foster children statewide.

The lawmakers want to try to prevent children from being placed in group homes far from their home communities and families. The legislation also would try to incentivize the creation of group homes in more communities across the state.

Dayton police Lt. Col. Eric Henderson in sponsored testimony last month said, “One significant aspect of House Bill 583 is that it strives to ensure that no particular region has a disproportionate number of group home facilities. This would mitigate the extremely long-distance placement of youth, easing the burden on communities by sharing the responsibility for the care of these children.”