<p>Unfortunately, perception is reality when it comes to home values. There are two elementary schools within a mile of each other in my part of town. One has slightly more students on the ‘free lunch program’ than the other. We recently sold a house in that area. Our house was zoned for the school with the larger percentage of free lunch students. The next street over was not. The realtor told us that we would get less and our house would take longer to sell for this reason. We did eventually did sell the house ( after 2 yrs on the market to someone without kids) at a substantial loss. Obviously the current housing crisis had a lot to do with the loss and time it took to sell it but it does make you realize that as a homeowner, lots of things you have no control over affect the value of your home and all of that can change on a dime. Personally, things like the free lunch program, group housing, low-income housing don’t bother me a bit but it does bother a lot of people, and those people factor those things in when buying homes.</p>
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<p>Real estate brokers also cannot comment on the racial make up of the neighborhood, or the socioeconomic status of the neighbors. </p>
<p>If the house has some violations of things like blight law or parking ordinances, then you have something to discuss with your town. If these folks are complying with issues in your town, I’m not sure what your complaint is.</p>
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<p>Thumper, see my OP. The home has not been in compliance on any of these things and the neighbors have reported them on numerous occasions, already. As I said, the concern is that fines will not prove to be an effective deterrent and that the town will not risk going any further for fear of a lawsuit. The law comes down almost completely on the side of the operator of the homes in all but the most extreme situations. Accomodations are expected to be made even when local zoning laws would typically limit or have jurisdiction over an identical level of usage.</p>
<p>So I guess it depends what you mean by “complaint”. If you mean recourse, it is true we may not have any other than fining for the noise and nuisance violations. We are concerned this won’t be an adequate deterrent to an off premises landlord and an agency that knows they will be supported in all but the most extreme cases. I think that is what people are upset about. Not that the house is here.</p>
<p>grouphome- have any of the neighbors approached the operator of the group home about some of the complaints?
My oldest worked briefly for an owner of a group home. Part of her job was making sure the occupants were good neighbors. Included in being good neighbors was being careful where they parked and not smoking in front of the house. Also they were not suppose to congregate in the front yard. My D only lasted 6 weeks in the job because she decided the hassles of the job were not worth the money.</p>
<p>mom60, Yes, we have approached them with our concerns, but most persist. The good news is that the agency has agreed to sit down with our representatives. We also plan to talk to town officials.</p>