In an Antioch neighborhood on Una Antioch Pike and Carrollton Station you'll find plenty of homes, churches, schools, a greenway and soon you'll possibly find a halfway house.
Jerico Properties purchased the land, and the religious nonprofit group Men of Valor plan to house about 21 newly released felons at a time. The problem is most neighbors don't want it. "We're just tired of being dumped on and especially these people arent telling us anything," said Antioch resident Linda York.
Metro Council member Tanaka Vercher says the operators of this massive project have continuously declined to share their plans with residents leaving them uneasy. "Well it scares me," said York. "It scares me because we have children that will be out playing that are less than a quarter mile from this place."
This place will sit on 64 acres of land zoned for multi-family and mixed use. Vercher has proposed a bill to reduce its density. "We have 15-hundred units coming to this area," she said. "We have two additional subdivisions coming to the area too, and none of this has been factored in when coming to this property."
In addition to all the extra traffic, neighbors say there are no nearby grocery stores or bus routes. "You're going to put a bunch of ex-felons up here without any kind of way of getting around," said York.
Residents applaud the group's efforts to rehabilitate felons but say Antioch already has its share of halfway homes. "If everybody thinks that this is such a good idea, I suggest they move it in their neighborhoods," York said.
We tried reaching out to Men of Valor for comment but our calls were not returned. This is not a done deal, there's another planning commission meeting later this month.
There's also a public meeting taking place tomorrow. Council Member Vercher plans to update the Antioch community on the proposed halfway house at 10 tomorrow morning at Apollo Middle School on Richards Road.
