COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – Branch County’s major problem with heroin addicts, especially among the female population, was put in painful perspective at this week’s meeting of the Coldwater City Planning Commission. A request by a ministry group to open a six bed halfway house at a residence on West Pierce Street for women being released from the Branch County Jail was rejected Monday by the Planning Commission, which said a more suitable location was necessary for the program.
Among those who spoke in favor of the transitional housing at the Commission’s public hearing was Shanna Houtz, a Branch County Circuit Court probation officer for female offenders. Houtz, who is an employee of the Department of Corrections, made it clear she was speaking for herself and not the DOC when the told the Commission that heroin and methamphetamine are a huge, huge problem in the county and believes the proposal for the halfway house can at least, in her words, “take the edge off from it”.
Houtz calls it amazing the number of women she has on her caseload with the current number placed at around 60 and she emphasized these are felony, not misdemeanor probation and the vast majority are on her file because of drug and alcohol related issues.
Organizers of the halfway house proposal promised they would follow up on the Planning Commission’s recommendation to search for another site for the project that would put it closer to locations that offer related services and places the women could find jobs that would allow them to walk to work.
