Deb Wiley lives about half a mile from a property on Banksville Road that could soon house federal inmates, a prospect that leaves her unsettled.
“Having criminals in our neighborhood is difficult for everybody,” Wiley, 68, of Banksville, told TribLive.
Wiley, a member of the Banksville Civic Association, has been circulating a petition and trying to drum up opposition to a proposal to convert the Fraternal Order of Police building — the city police union’s headquarters — into a custodial care home that could house around 100 people leaving federal prisons.
Louisville, Ky.-based Dismas Charities in a presentation to the Pittsburgh Planning Commission last week said the residential reentry facility would house up to 92 men and a dozen women.
The 14,000-square-foot building sits on a roughly 10.6-acre site, which includes two garages and a parking lot. A real estate listing shows the building at 1070 Banksville Rd. for sale for $1.7 million.
The building is owned by the Fraternal Order of Police, according to county property records. Union President Robert Swartzwelder said the union decided to downsize as their numbers have declined in recent years.
Swartzwelder said Dismas Charities has given them hand money for the sale but he did not know when the purchase might be finalized. He declined to disclose a sale price.
“For me, I just want to sell the building,” he said Thursday. “The FOP supports the community correctional environment. We believe in rehabilitation.”
Swartzwelder said Banksville residents are “entitled to have their opinion,” but he hopes people who may live at the facility will go on to “reenter society as hopefully productive citizens.”
Wiley said she’s concerned about the proximity to nearby residential areas. Banksville Elementary Schools is just over a mile away.
“I don’t see how having sexual predators and human traffickers and violent criminals and drug abusers is the kind of people that should be here next to neighborhoods, elementary schools, adolescent counseling,” Wiley told TribLive. “It’s just a concern for safety.”
The property sits on a largely wooded site off a four-lane stretch of Banksville Road. No homes sit directly adjacent to the property.
Officials from Dismas Charities told the commission they could not limit residents to those who had been convicted of nonviolent crimes under their deal with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Sex offenders will need to register through the Megan’s Law system, and residents can be tracked with GPS monitoring, said Cathy Bellew, vice president of business development.
Denise Reder, 68, who has lived in Banksville for 35 years, said she is “absolutely furious.”
“You’ve got this building that is going to house 100 felons,” she said, echoing Wiley’s concerns about putting such a facility in a residential neighborhood. “It’s just not conducive here.”
Reder described Banksville as a “quiet community” where people used to feel safe leaving their doors unlocked. She said she would consider selling her home if Dismas Charities took over the police union site.
Wiley said she’s worried people at Dismas may flee the facility and commit crimes in her community.
It’s happened elsewhere. In 2018, a man left a Dismas facility in Kentucky and fatally shot a police officer.
Dismas would have security inside and out and will conduct random drug testing, Bellew told the planning commission last week.
She said she’s sensitive to the neighborhood’s concerns.
“We take fear very seriously and we are open to any recommendations the city or the neighborhood may have,” she said during the meeting. “We just want to be a good neighbor.”
Bellew said people need a place to transition from prisons back into society.
“This is their first step back into the community from incarceration,” she said.
In a letter to the planning commission, police union Vice President Joseph Nicholas voiced support for the federal reentry program to take over the police union’s building.
“We support its nonprofit mission to provide safe, effective reentry services to offenders returning to their community,” Nicholas wrote. “The community and the men and women who come through this program will benefit from the support services and supervision this program will provide.”
The planning commission is expected to vote on the proposal next Tuesday. City Council will make a final decision on whether to allow the facility after that.
Councilwoman Kim Salinetro, who represents the community, declined to comment on the proposal, citing her “quasi-judicial” role in voting on whether to grant the zoning allowance that would pave the way for Dismas to operate there.
For Wiley, bringing such a facility into the neighborhood is a “complete nonstarter.”
“The reality is people need to be rehabilitated, and they need to come back into society — but not in Banksville,” she said. “It’s the wrong location.”