State suspends license of Avenue House
In wake of slaying, nonprofit that runs home for troubled youths says reopening is unlikely
LOCKPORT — The state has suspended the operating certificate of Avenue House, a group home for troubled youths where a worker from Buffalo was brutally murdered last week. The nonprofit agency that runs the home said that it is unlikely to reopen the facility.
“I do not believe we will ever place children in that home again,” said Joseph Gallagher, an administrative director for New Directions Youth & Family Services, which also runs Wyndham Lawn Home for Children in the Town of Lockport and the Randolph Children’s Home in Cattaraugus County.
Counselor Renee C. Greco was bludgeoned to death at Avenue House, 437 East Ave., late on June 8 by Anthony J. Allen, 18, and Robert J. Thousand, 17, both of Rochester, city police said. They have been charged with second-degree murder.
The suspects are accused of plotting the killing to cover up the theft of $160 from a New Directions lockbox at the home on the previous weekend.
Greco, 24, had worked at the home for two years. Friends and family members told The Buffalo News last week that she had planned to quit her job soon because of escalating problems with some of the home’s residents.
New Directions closed the group home after the homicide. It has not reopened.
Meanwhile, city and state officials are vowing to not only prevent the home from reopening, but push for a closer examination of how all state juvenile facilities are operated.
“The system seems broken in New York State, and we have a moral obligation to fix it,” said State Sen. Catharine M. Young, R-Olean.
Greco was alone with five teenage boys on the night she was killed, which did not violate state mandates, but Lockport Mayor Michael W. Tucker said staffing guidelines must be rewritten.
“I plan to reach out to the governor,” Tucker said Tuesday. “These rules and regulations need to be tightened up. This could have happened in any city, anywhere.”
Officials with the state Department of Family and Children’s Services told state legislators in Albany during a special meeting regarding group homes Monday that the Avenue House license was “suspended indefinitely” shortly after Greco was killed.
New Directions would have to go through an appeals process as part of the state investigation into the slaying before it could reopen, the lawmakers were told.
In addition, New Directions will have to undergo its accreditation review a year early, the state agency told lawmakers.
Gallagher told The News on Tuesday that New Directions will not seek to reopen Avenue House.
Before the slaying, many people in Lockport did not know that the home for troubled youths existed, even some in the neighborhood.
“The role of a group home is to succeed, not to hide the home,” Gallagher said.
“People generally know of its existence, but from our perspective, it had been doing well.”
Tucker said he plans to lead the charge to keep any home for troubled youths out of the city. Right now, he said, there is no similar home inside city limits.
“Recently, things [at Avenue House] had started to escalate,” the mayor said. “There had been more police calls, but before that, it never stood out.
“Today, we all know [what happened there], and I can assure you that the city will fight vigorously against reopening it in [the same] situation.”
Assemblywoman Jane L. Corwin, R-Clarence, said the meeting Monday with the Office of Family and Children’s Services was just the first.
Lawmakers said they plan to hold several meetings on how the state manages troubled youths, how the youths are placed, what the rules are for privately run homes, and what are acceptable staffing guidelines.
Young said there is a “real lack of accountability on the part of OCFS” and called for Senate hearings.
“We really need to roll up our sleeves on this,” Young said. “Every day, there is news of violence in a facility or a resident AWOL and out in the community.
“OCFS is the gatekeeper, and when they place juveniles inappropriately, they put everyone at risk — staff, the community and other juveniles.”
In Western New York, two other New Directions facilities also have had recent problems.
Friday, a 17-year-old resident of Wyndham Lawn was arrested and accused of threatening to kill a youth-care worker and kicking the front bumper of her vehicle, Niagara County sheriff’s officials reported.
And on the night of May 31, a dozen youths fled from Randolph Children’s Home in Cattaraugus County, and after being brought back there, they fought with police and staff, forcing authorities to use pepper spray to quell the melee.
The Office of Family and Children’s Services is reviewing its policies, “but there clearly is going to be a lot more on this,” said State Sen. George D. Maziarz, R-Newfane.
The office had closed several secure facilities in upstate, including two in Cattaraugus County, he said, and now has fewer choices of where to put “clearly potentially violent offenders.”
Meanwhile, Greco’s friends plan a vigil outside Avenue House at 7:30 p. m. Monday.
Her friend Jocelyn Buczek said, “We want to show that there’s still a lot of support for her in the community.”
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