Jul 17, 2002 By Steve Ferris 6 min read

Larry Breitenstein said it’s natural for people to worry about what will happen to their neighborhoods when they hear that a juvenile shelter is moving in. As chief executive office of the Latrobe-based Adelphoi Village, Breitenstein said that apprehension is soon replaced by acceptance as the youth from the shelter become active in the community.

“You’ve got to get kids involved in the community,” Breitenstein told members of Uniontown’s Downtown Business District Authority at their monthly meeting Tuesday.

“We don’t just keep kids there, because if you just let kids sit around, they’re going to get into trouble.”

Adelphoi’s temporary shelters, like the one proposed for the second floor of the Federal Building in the city’s central business district, for abused, neglected and truant juveniles provide regimented schedules for youth, he said.

Breitenstein attended the meeting at the invitation of the DBDA to explain how the shelter would operate and answer questions about the facility.

In the afternoon, he met with local officials at the Federal Building to discuss the shelter.

Both meetings preceded a hearing scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday when the city’s zoning hearing board will consider a special exception to allow the shelter to operate in the central business district.

Uniontown’s zoning ordinance does not permit a youth shelter, which the ordinance defines as a residential facility, in the central business district.

The Fayette County commissioners already agreed to lease the second floor of the building to Adelphoi for $25,300 per year for 10 years, and Adelphoi agreed to contribute $100,000 toward renovations needed for the shelter and pledged another $100,000 toward the work.

The commissioners sent Adelphoi a request for proposals (RFP) to use the second floor.

Adelphoi would house up to 12 juveniles at the facility.

Breitenstein said most would stay no longer than 30 days while awaiting a court decision placing them in foster care, with a relative or at a group home.

Along with truant, abused or neglected individuals, the shelter would house juveniles who have become out of their parents’ control and some delinquents, he said.

A juvenile delinquent is a youth convicted of a crime in juvenile court.

Breitenstein said if a delinquent who was returned to his family home by a juvenile court judge gets into trouble again, he or she could end up in a shelter without the shelter knowing immediately that he or she is a delinquent due to confidentiality laws governing juvenile offenders.

“We probably will get a couple delinquents,” Breitenstein told the DBDA.

The shelter would not serve as a detention center, which are secured facilities where courts can place delinquents, so state law prohibits shelters from locking their entry and exit doors.

Instead, the Federal Building shelter would have workers stationed at the doors and the workers would monitor motion detectors in the juveniles’ bedrooms, he said.

Responding to a question from DBDA members, Breitenstein said two staff members would be on duty during night shifts, but two teachers, counselors, social workers and other staff will be there during the day.

He conceded that the building is less than ideal from a recreational standpoint because it has no yard or outdoor area. An Adelphoi shelter in Hollidaysburg is in a similar situation, and juveniles there are taken by bus to recreational activities.

Breitenstein said the reimbursement that the state pays to counties to shelter youth significantly decreases after 30 days, so most stays are less than 30 days.

He said that having the shelter in Uniontown would save the county money it spends transporting youths to other facilities.

The non-profit Adelphoi operates more than 100 buildings primarily in Fayette, Washington, Westmoreland and Blair counties. Most are shelters or group homes. It operates one detention center in Altoona.

A regular maintenance schedule keeps the facilities in excellent condition, Breitenstein said.

“Some are the nicest the kids have ever lived in,” he said. “They’re the nicest on the street. I like to think we’re good neighbors.”

He said the kids get involved with senior citizens’ organizations, and a bingo is held in one of the shelters with the assistance from the juveniles.

Responding to another question, Breitenstein said the agency had only one “AWOL,” at one of its facilities in Connellsville, last year. He said most AWOLs occur when the youth are away from the shelter.

He also received some advice from DBDA Chairman Mark Rafail, who said Breitenstein or another Adelphoi representative should have visited businesses around the Federal Building to explain the agency’s plans before news of the shelter appeared in the media.

Rafail noted that a senior citizens high-rise apartment building is across from the building.

DBDA Executive Director Leigh Ann Sperry said a music school for children also is across the street from the building.

“Adelphoi has a persona,” Rafail said. “It scares people. The first thing people think of is a detention center with barbed wire. I think that’s your biggest problem. You should have gone to the public first. You’ve put yourself in a corner. It’s a scare factor and it’s because we’re uninformed.”

Breitenstein said Rafail’s advice was very good and “absolutely correct.”

At the afternoon meeting in the Federal Building, Jeanine Russell – an architect with Michael S. Molnar Associates, the firm that’s designing the renovations – said the county commissioners obtained the building from the federal government to keep the post office open, preserve the building and have more office space for the juvenile probation department.

She said the federal government also added occupancy stipulations, and the commissioners thought that a group home would be well suited for the building.

Russell also said the city’s old zoning ordinance permitted special exceptions for shelters in the central business district, and the county acquired the building when the old ordinance was still in effect.

Irmi Gaut, executive director of the City Mission-Living Stones Inc., said Adelphoi would duplicate the services offered by her facility, which opened in May and only half of its capacity is being used.

“It sounds almost identical to our program,” Gaut said. “I’m really concerned about duplication of services.”

She said she thought Adelphoi intended to open a locked-down detention center.

Jim Bendel of Adelphoi, who joined Breitenstein at the afternoon meeting, said he was not aware of the City Mission or its services when Adelphoi responded to the county’s RFP.

Gaut said the City Mission did not respond to the RFP.

She said her facility is licensed to keep youths there for up to 18 months and has training and treatment programs not offered by Adelphoi.

Bendel said that if the Federal Building shelter opens, Adelphoi would either close or find a different use for the shelter it operates in the Connellsville YMCA, which is one of four Adelphoi facilities there.