Community applauds Doug Ford's opposition of youth group home

Residents who live near an Etobicoke home for developmentally disabled youth are applauding Councillor Doug Ford for taking up their cause by suggesting the facility be moved off their street. They say they resent being painted as mean-spirited, and that the issue has been distorted.

Opposition to the home sparked a sustained public backlash online in the days after a public meeting Thursday, with critics accusing Mr. Ford and those who live in the area of NIMBYism...

When interviewed Sunday on Jeffcoat Drive, a quiet street of mostly postwar bungalows with well-tended yards near Rexdale and Kipling, residents said the issue has been misconstrued as one of intolerance. They voiced sympathy for the youth, but say there have been safety and convenience issues since the home operated by Griffin Centre opened two months ago.

A number of residents, most of whom did not want to be identified, say some in the area no longer feel safe. They also worry about property values and point to problems such as people connected to the facility parking cars in such a way as sometimes to block garbage pick-up. And they say that the negative reaction prompted by the youth at the home is making the neighbourhood bad for them as well. Everyone would be better off, residents argue, if the home was moved.

What's rather interesting is that The Globe and Mail, which did a hatchet job on Doug Ford last year, is now the only paper so far that bothered to speak to area residents and has come to Ford's defense.