CLEVELAND — There’s a new proposal from a Cleveland nursing home that it will soon allow sex offenders to live in its facility. That plan is something you’ve contacted the News 5 Investigators about, expressing your concerns.
People sent us a notification letter sent by the nursing home Euclid Beach Nursing & Rehabilitation stating “non-violent and non-repeat registered sex offenders” would be allowed to live there starting Sept. 1.
The letter reads that the sex offenders will “have completed the facility’s extensive screening process” and “will be assessed prior to admission on a case-by-case basis….”
WE TRIED TO HEAR FROM THE HOME
We called the nursing home, trying to get more information. The executive director told us to put our request in an email, and he would check with his bosses. We have since sent three emails with no response.
So, we went to that nursing home on Cleveland’s East Side. We were told he wasn’t in, and we still didn’t hear anything back.
THE COUNCILMAN'S CONCERNS
“Everyone knows I’m very protective of my community,” said Cleveland City Councilman Mike Polensek, who represents that ward. He told us he, too, was sent the notification letter by concerned citizens. He said he wasn’t notified by the home about the upcoming changes, so he composed his own letter asking for more info.
He told us he then got a call from the home apologizing to him, but that the sex offenders would be isolated to the second floor of the home.
"And if I feel that there’s any indication that residents, the present residents, are at risk or feel unsafe, then I’m going to be on somebody like white on rice,” said the councilman.
At the same time, he told us it begs the question of what do you do with people who’ve been convicted of crimes and are at the end of their lives? He said you can’t just put them out on the street.
"So, I’ve weighed this heavily,” said Councilman Polensek. “I’m trying to look at it from a moral perspective, but also from a public safety perspective as well.”
NOT THE ONLY ONE
In our research, we found another home called University Manor Healthcare that’s also on the city’s East Side and admits sex offenders. Of its 149 beds, more than 40 residents are registered sex offenders, according to the state’s sex offender registry.
We asked the nursing home for an on-camera interview, but we were told it was “unable to accommodate (our) request.”
For Councilman Polensek, he said he’ll keep a watchful eye on what happens at Euclid Beach Nursing and Rehabilitation. "They’ve assured me that the residents are going to be safe, and I’m going to hold them to that,” he told us.
One thing viewers/readers brought up to us is that there are restrictions about sex offenders not living close to schools, but now society and the law are saying they can live side-by-side with another vulnerable population -senior citizens.
On the other side of this, we’ve heard the argument that sex offenders have to live somewhere.
