Board of Supervisors Vetoes Lewelling Group Home

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors last week voted to block a 16-bed residential treatment facility from opening on East Lewelling Boulevard, saying the facility was in violation of the Ashland Community Development Plan. 

A score of supporters and nearly a dozen opponents—both armed to the teeth with petitions—appeared before the board in Oakland Oct. 5  to discuss the Seventh Step Foundation's proposed new facility, which would house 16 male parolees. Seventh Step currently runs a 32-bed facility in Hayward, but director Ron Doyle had hoped to expand the program to Ashland and Cherryland, where he said there are more ex-cons in need.

"They are already in the community, living in grandma's house or in abandoned cars," Doyle said. "Just because the homeowners of Cherryland and Ashland don't think they're there, doesn't mean they aren't."

The facility, planned for 827 East Lewelling Blvd., would have provided housing and drug treatment, as well as one-on-one counseling and job training to local men recently released from prison.

Program graduate Charles Johnson, who spoke in favor of the facility at Tuesday's meeting, credited Seventh Step with giving him his life back.

"I learned things that allowed me to go on and be a husband, a father, a grandfather, part of the Oakland Area Violence Prevention program," Johnson told the board. "It allowed me to discharge parole and become an outreach specialist with the Department of Veteran Affairs. I am one less person running around in the community victimizing homeowners. Without access to that, I'd still be one of the persons that the community is so afraid of."

But homeowner and Ashland Area Community Association President David Zechman said the area is already overrun with residential treatment programs.

"This is not 'not in my back yard.' It's `not in my back yard again,' " Zechman said. "Ashland as a whole and the unincorporated areas as a whole have long been a dumping ground for projects that neighboring communities don't want."

Though Supervisor Nate Miley publicly commended the center's work in Hayward, he urged the board to oppose the new center because the community development plan had zoned that part of Lewelling Boulevard for mixed commercial use. The group is still exploring the possibility of a smaller residential facility with an office at the East Lewelling location, Doyle said.

"I know the gentlemen at this facility. They've been good neighbors, they've worked with Cherryland, they've worked with my office, but I'm challenged here," Miley said. "I feel uncomfortable going against what we've put in place."