Law Times

Law timeS • September 10, 2012 Can town stop group home? Municipality's position draws national attention FOCUS BY KENNETH JACKSON For Law Times NAPANEE — Kendra Henley has just lost one of her guys. She points to his bed up against the wall in the common area adjacent to the kitchen. It doesn't have a blanket or sheets. Outside, her other guys are on the wooden deck smoking ciga- rettes aſter finishing their dinner. Brian Clark has been dead for two days. He was 57. He had Down syndrome and was one of Henley' guys, as she calls them, are residents of the group home she operates for adults with developmental and physical challenges. Henley and her husband Brian say it' s first clients. Her as long as he did considering his illness. In the weeks leading up to his death, Clark fought to live. He went s remarkable that Clark lived to hospital by ambulance over and over again. Now Henley has a fight of her own. She' s up against the Town of Greater Napanee, which is about 200 kilometres east of Toronto, in a fight for her own survival. She's also battling for her clients. The town doesn't want her to run the group home. Her battle has men who call Abbey Dawn Place home. "It' been going on for more than a year. "They look to us like their parents," says Henley of the handful of s not like they are running around punching holes in the walls. But this, the idea we set out to model, is a family home." until they died. Others had been in nursing homes that couldn't care for them anymore. "That' she says. "It's a home. It's a family." Henley says most of the clients had parents who took care of them which the local council, despite advice from a lawyer suggesting it do otherwise, told Henley she wouldn't be getting the proper zoning requirements to run the home. Leſt with no other option, Henley says she contacted the Human Rights Legal Support Centre, an organization that assists Ontario residents with their complaints. Aſter months of considering the issue, Henley launched her s what makes this place work and what makes it different," Henley took legal action aſter a town meeting last October during while he worked." of the neighbour's house says, "Laughter is God's sunshine." The neighbour wasn't available to comment. Henley has worked in group "He was just staring at him A stone on the front lawn in October in order to consider the issues related to the amend- ment. Henley claims that as she homes as a registered practical nurse. She has seen the good and the bad, which is why she wanted to open her own opera- tion. Brian is a retired special education teacher. He was at the Lambton County School Board for more than 25 years. The pair first opened their walked into the meeting room, she heard heckling by mem- bers of the public telling her she should move and go home. Again, a lawyer advised the that town council stop the Henleys. Schermerhorn then alleg- it couldn't edly said to legal counsel, "There has to be some way to stop this group home. group home a little further up on Beverly Street, which is in a suburban-like area with de- tached homes side by side, on Dec. 25, 2010. They sought and obtained town. Everything was fine until they moved into their current location a couple of months later. At a planning committee meeting on Feb. 16, approval from the 2011, the town expressed a variety of concerns, in- cluding whether the home was complying with its fire inspection requirements. It also said the home needed building and floor plans and required Hen- ley to obtain a site-specific zoning amendment in order to run it. The Henleys addressed all of the issues except the zoning changes. That was something the town needed to do. The town then sought legal advice from a law complaint. The story came out in the news earlier this summer. It started out as one media story before it blew up and became a na- tional topic. The case evoked outrage among Canadians who made comments on the media stories online and on social media web sites like Facebook and Twitter. They were especially upset with the comments Napanee Mayor Gord Schermerhorn made at the Oct. 11, 2011 meeting. Council minutes revealed Schermerhorn said he agreed that if he lived in the area, he would be upset and that it was the wrong spot for a group home. Schermerhorn lives on the other side of town in a bungalow overlooking a golf range and a storage business he opened. Henley says the public reaction was a reversal of the anger she had grown used to experiencing as the home had been a lightening rod for criticism since February 2011. Napanee, a town of about 5,000 people, has a population that increases to 15,000 aſter accounting for the outlying areas brought together by amalgamation. Besides her fight with the town, Henley was also battling her neighbours. She claims some neighbours taunted the men. The jabs included telling the men to "get out of here" and "go away. Neighbours allegedly laced the comments with profanity and dis- criminatory language. People accused Clark, who couldn't get around without the assis- " tance of a walker and a helper, of twice trying to break into homes despite his physical and mental disabilities. One neighbour protested by playing his music all day with the vol- firm in Kingston, Ont. In an August 2011 letter, the firm said the Henleys were within their rights to operate the group home and didn't require a zoning amendment. The letter also said the town would be acting Kendra Henley stands in front of the group home she's fighting to keep running in Napanee. Photo: Kenneth Jackson day and age that a town council would be fearful of people with developmental disabilities. "It' lot in her time but suggests this case is a noteworthy one. She says it' once I got the documentation, it became apparent to me the town really wasn't playing the proper role that a government body like a municipality should play. It was made very clear to me this was a case worth filing at the Human Rights Tribunal. We be- lieved this was a case of discriminatory attitudes held by the [town council]." It could take quite some time before the com- "Once I read the minutes of the town council, s really heart wrenching," says Seamon. plaint is over. The timing depends on how media- tion goes and whether or not the case has to go to a hearing before the tribunal. In the meantime, Henley says the couple doesn't inconsistently with human rights principles if it didn't allow the home. The town proceeded to schedule the meeting Let us open right door for you the ume blasted on a stereo he put on his back deck, says Henley. Henley called police to report the noise complaint. An officer We specialize in Employment and Labour Law in Canada spoke to the man and ordered him to turn down his music and find another way to protest. Others alleged Henley leſt the home unattended with the clients inside, a claim she refutes. "Someone is always here," she says, shaking her head. One couple across the road reportedly wrote a provincial organi- zation in a bid to stop Henley from receiving funding. Henley says the town and some of its people have tried everything they could to stop her from running the group home. Since the story broke, Henley said she has been facing further in- side of the house and the neighbour came out and stood right on his property line just like this," says Henley. A couple weeks back, Brian was moving some stuff over to the timidation by some of her neighbours. Not one neighbour has come to provide support in any way. " Kuretzky Vassos Henderson is a leading employment and labour law fi rm situated in the heart of Toronto. We are comprised of eleven lawyers, all of whom specialize in the area of employment and labour law. We act for many prominent public and private sector employers as well as for individuals. Kuretzky Vassos Henderson LLP Our work includes extensive experience in the areas of: Wrongful dismissal • Human rights • Labour relations/Labour law/Collective barganing • Workplace health and safety • Sexual harassment • Employment standards • Employment contracts • Canada Labour Code • Class actions • Mediation/arbitration/ADR www.kuretzkyvassos.com • 416.865.0504 Kuretzky_LT_July11_11.indd 1 www.lawtimesnews.com 7/5/11 3:32:01 PM mon area with two men. They've arrived to pick up Clark' s bed and haul it away. s speaking, Brian enters the com- LT s hard to imagine in this counsel with the legal support centre, is representing the com- plainants. Seamon says she has seen a Jo-Ann Seamon, senior " PAGE 13 go outside much, at least not out front. They stay inside or go on the back deck. Then, as she'

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