Here's What's Hot On CBS11TV.com:
Jul 24, 2008 9:46 pm US/Central
FW Neighborhood Trying To Shut Down Halfway House
FORT WORTH (CBS 11 News) ―
A retired parole officer is reaching out to ex-convicts, giving them a place to live and a place to grow. But many people in East Fort Worth are not happy about having a transitional home in their neighborhood, and they are trying to shut down Obidiah's House.
"I'm afraid someone's gonna get hurt, killed or raped," said John Whittington. He is circulating a petition, trying to shut down the transitional house at the corner of Norma Street and Wilson Road.
"It makes me think it's not the neighborhood for us," he said.
One mother of four, who doesn't want to be identified, is one of about 100 people who signed the petition.
"The idea of anywhere from drug dealers to pedophiles to rapists living in our neighborhood in multiples, it's not anything any mother would want," she said.
"It's extremely important," said Ross Geyer, the owner of Obidah's House. "It's what God wants me to do." Geyer is a retired parole officer and an ordained Baptist minister.
"We wanted in some small way to help those who have found Christ inside of prison get on their feet and succeed, rather than them go back to prison in a short amount of time," he said.
Geyer says because of the petition, he no longer allows those on parole into the home. That would require specific licensing from the city.
Right now, he has four men living in the non-profit house. Two of them came from a substance abuse facility, one did time for theft and another was convicted of fraud.
"We just want a chance," Geyer said. He added that violent ex-convicts are not allowed in the house. Those who are accepted are screened and closely monitored, unlike many other ex-convicts who live in this Meadowbrook neighborhood.
"Of course you know you have them in your neighborhood, but to bus them in is different. It really is," said a resident of the neighborhood who did not want to be identified.
Geyer says everyone who lives in the house must sign in and out when they leave, and they all work. He says any troublemakers are evicted right away. City and state officials are looking into this matter.
(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
CBS11TV.com Extra: Raw Police Chase Video
