After hearing about neighbors' opposition, others rally behind a group home for foster children during an Oldsmar City Council meeting.
By TAMARA EL-KHOURY
Published November 17, 2005
OLDSMAR - Stefani Stauffer was given three minutes to address the City Council. She started with her age.
She's 20 years old. She is working on a double major in political science and international business. Next year, she'll attend Stetson University College of Law. And she was raised by the state of Florida.
"I had wonderful parents - people who supported me all the time," she said. "Whether they were mom or dad biologically, it didn't matter."
Like dozens of others, Stauffer came to City Hall on Tuesday night to speak up for a group home for six foster children on Shore Drive.
Stauffer spent the last 18 months of her years in foster care at a group home in St. Petersburg run by Gift of Life, the same social services organization that will run the home on Shore Drive.
"From my own personal experience, I know that having a place to go is important," she said.
The publicity over the foster children has moved civic organizations and church groups to rally behind the home. They were spurred by outrage over residents' opposition to the children's placement in their neighborhood.
"This really has probably resulted in more support than we've ever had," said Lee Scharrer, executive director of Gift of Life.
With bad memories of a previous group home for juvenile delinquents, Shore Drive residents came to the last City Council meeting demanding that something be done to stop the new group home from coming. They were told there was nothing the city could do.
Undeterred, the residents came to Tuesday's meeting as well, this time armed with a petition with 50 signatures in opposition.
"We feel that the decision to have a group home in this community is detrimental to our children and our grandchildren, as well as to our property values," it read.
Hazel Heidemann, a resident of Shore Drive, requested a town meeting with Scharrer and the owner of the house.
"We want to know who our neighbors are going to be," she said.
Sandy Sears, also a Shore Drive resident, requested that a committee be appointed to go to state officials to find more suitable places for the children to live.
"A foster home has foster parents," she said. "There are no foster parents in this home."
Although the home on Shore Drive will have a trained staff, Scharrer is still seeking a couple to act as the home's parents.
But while the residents were united in opposition, others at the meeting called upon them to show some charity.
"When people become more concerned about their property values than their moral values, that's unnerving," said the Rev. Barry Sullivan of Spirit Life Harvest Church.
He pointed out that Ella Fitzgerald, Herbert Hoover, Louisa May Alcott, Nelson Mandela, Eleanor Roosevelt and even Moses had all been foster children. Who wouldn't want any of them as neighbors? he asked.
Even Mayor Jerry Beverland asked the residents to reconsider. He grew emotional as he spoke of his son Robyn Beverland, who died of a rare genetic disorder in 1998.
"If we would have given up on him, my son would have been placed in a group home somewhere, and I would have hoped they would have given him a chance," Beverland said. "Give these kids the same chance."
Applause broke out after a representative from the Moose Lodge stood up to say that the club's officers had agreed to have the children as the lodge's guests for Thanksgiving dinner and will make sure the children have presents under their Christmas tree.
Scharrer said he talked with about a dozen residents after the last City Council meeting.
"They were angry. They yelled at me a lot," he said. "They probably didn't hear all my answers."
He invited residents to an open house today from 4 to 7 p.m. so that they could see the home's renovations before the children move in.
Brian Smith and Jody Carr have three foster children. They said that with a shortage of foster parents, a group home is the best alternative. They hope the neighborhood will eventually embrace the kids.
"Once they see these children, they'll fall in love with them like we have," Smith said.
