Update: Greenlea Residents 'More Cautious' One Year After Group Home Opens

Greenlea Drive resident Nelson Kletzli said tensions have cooled but not abated one year after a controversial group home into the Amherst Acres neighborhood. 

"I think that people are a lot more cautious in the neighborhood," Kletzli said. "And people look out more for what's going on."  

After months of outcry from the neighborhood's residents, two men in  moved into the split-level home at 162 Greenlea Drive. The Homestead-based Transitional Services Inc. purchased the home in 2010 to house residents transitioning back into independent life after bouts with mental illness.

The non-profit provides a range of services to Pittsburgh-area people coping with mental and developmental disabilities. 

Kletzli said neighbors have in the past year reached out to the home's residents, some of whom have moved in and out of the home since its opening.

"Some neighbors have gone and introduced themselves," Kletzli said. "I don't think it's made a gigantic difference [in the neighborhood] but we do watch out more." 

Transitional Services CEO Veronica Livingstone could not be reached for comment. Former CEO Sharon Alberts, who before the township zoning hearing board against a zoning appeal filed by Greenlea residents, has retired from the organization. 

Alberts told Patch last year that Transitional Services purchased the house with the intent to rent rooms to four men who shared a history of mental illness. Alberts said that the organization would help the home's residents find jobs and acclimate into the community. 

The home's purchase was met with protest from many of the street's residents, who worried that the residents could pose a safety risk to others. The single-family home is not zoned as a group care facility, but a shared residence where individuals live independently. 

"I have not personally met [the home's residents]," Kletzli said. "I've said hello a couple of times driving by, but I've never held a conversation with them." 

Citing concerns for children living near the street, some residents formed a community group the Moon Advocates for Community Safety. Neighbors also took part in mediation with Transitional Services. 

"We have had a number of residents attend meetings [in the month's following the home's opening]," said township manager Jeanne Creese. "We've explained to them that to [prevent the home's opening] would place the township in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

"I actually just spoke to [] Chief Leo McCarthy, and he said there have been no criminal incidents at the house," Creese said. 

Kletzli said efforts to the home's opening strengthened bonds in the neighborhood. The neighborhood safety group has met several times to discuss safety and environmental issues in the community, he said. 

"I don't think [the home] changed the neighborhood," he said. "But what it has done is brought people together. We are more observant of what goes on in our neighborhood." 

Update: Donna Santucci, program director for Transitional Services Inc., said the home's residents have been "pleasantly surprised" since moving into the home at 162 Greenlea Drive. 

"I think as people get to know people a lot of the fears and stigmas go away," Santucci said. "And really that's what it's been. I think we've been good neighbors and the neighbors on either side of the house have been good neighbors to us." 

She said the home's residents have embraced Moon Township as their home. 

"The guys have been very appreciative of the opportunity to live out their dreams," Santucci said.