Halfway houses in York

The York Daily Record had a nice story the other day about some ex-cons who are getting a fresh start, having started their own business cutting hair. A half-way house is planned down the street in York, and they were on the record to say they support it. It’s hard to come out against such things, when you believe in redemption and in trying to help those who are trying to help themselves. But, as some people in the Avenues have long maintained, city neighborhoods have more than their fair share of such accommodations.
One such resident, Charles Bacas, wrote to the paper to make that point: “Recall the Avenues Neighborhood Association meeting a few years ago when a County Probation officer told us that Allegheny county had targeted York City as the place to send their released prisoners because of the easy rules and plentiful halfway houses that we have! Recall that as one of his last acts as a state legislator, Cong. Todd Platts helped defeat the placing of a Methadone treatment facility in Spring Garden! … For that is the issue — fair sharing of such facilities. The grand old homes in The Avenues Neighborhood were targeted for conversion to halfway houses long ago, and we have accommodated far too many of them. But we also now have back-to-the city folks who are buying and restoring some of these old homes to their former grandeur and we need to give such enterprising people a fair chance too.”