The neighborhood surrounding 112 Lafayette Avenue is banding together to put a stop to the purchase and use of that residential home for a Recovery House. We are a close, quiet, family filled neighborhood that has a long list of concerns regarding the Recovery House project.

We have contacted Dr. Higgins, Executive Director of the Mental Health, Drug and Alcohol Services Board, to let him know that we do not want the recovery home going in at 112 Lafayette. Dr. Higgins was recently quoted in the Urbana Daily Citizen paper saying "If it will not fit in the neighborhood and they aren't going to accept us, then we don't want to be in that neighborhood. We want to be in a neighborhood where everybody is comfortable." The paper stated that "the goal is to have the neighborhood and the residents comfortable with each other." Unfortunately, they did not give our neighborhood the same courtesy they gave the last one when attempting to purchase a home for this reason. The last neighborhood made their concerns known and the MHDAS board and Residential Administrators Inc. backed out of the purchase. We were not made aware of the attempted purchase of 112 Lafayette until the article in the paper on May 1,2015. People involved in the project were being told there was no opposition of the project by the neighborhood which was simply untrue. They were doing their best to keep it a secret until the home purchase was finalized.

We want the MHDAS board to stand by their words and back out of the purchase of this home for a Recovery House because we are not comfortable with it. When contacting MHDAS board members and Jon Brown with Residential Administrators, Inc, who is purchasing the home, there have not been consistent answers regarding the project and how the home and its tenants will be managed. We believe this will be inviting drugs and crime into our safe neighborhood and putting the families and children at risk.