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A neighborhood is rallying to shut down a Cedar Rapids home that provides residential care for people with disabilities, taking their case to state and city officials.The clients have been staffed by a soon-to-be-defunct agency called All Ages Care Services. Due to pending Dependent Adult Abuse criminal charges against one of the agency's owner (connected to an unrelated situation in Iowa City), All Ages Care Services will stop providing services to these four clients. But the clients will still live in that neighborhood and will need to be cared for by another agency.
They said no one told them exactly what or who was moving in next door. Now, they say it’s causing nothing but problems. Neighbors said the trouble started in December when the new neighbors moved in. That’s when police started becoming frequent visitors there. According to city records, police have responded to that house 19 times since December 20, 2013.
The Cedar Rapids City Assessor’s site said Soji and Romoke Olutunde own the home.
It sits right next to Linda Howe’s house. She has lived in the neighborhood for more than 40 years. “It’s nice and calm and relaxing,” Howe said.
That, however, recently changed.
“In December we got what I consider a group home moved in next door. We were told that it was going to be a couple with three adult handicapped children. But it ended up to be about four residents in a home with caretakers coming in and out,” Howe said.
She keeps a log of everything that happens next door, every disturbance gets noted.
“If there was a police call I circled, this was the ninth call, the tenth call,” Howe said as she pointed to a notebook.
The Iowa Department of Human Services or DHS said people there are receiving what’s called waiver services under the Medicaid program. Those are for people with a number of disabilities and older Iowans living in a community setting.
“You can have a home with people — four or fewer people receiving waiver service and this is just a landlord/tenant relationship. These are people who are choosing where they want to live, and we don’t certify the setting they are in. We only certify the services they are getting,” said DHS Public Information Officer Amy McCoy.
Except that the neighbors have been complaining to the Cedar Rapids planning commission. They want to deny a zoning permit that would allow these disabled individuals to continue living in their neighborhood and the commission has recommended that this permit be denied. In other words, a new agency would be unable to come to this home and provide services to these four disabled individuals.