Neighbors worry about drug and sex offenders in Kennewick home

From the outside, the home on West Fourth Avenue is just another two-story house in a quiet Kennewick neighborhood.

But the former felons living there have neighbors concerned.

About 40 people who live near the transitional home Progress House showed up at a recent Kennewick City Council meeting with concerns about the people living there.

The visitors took over the foyer for an impromptu 90-minute discussion with Police Chief Ken Hohenberg, Officer Roman Trujillo and the home’s owner, Steve Ouradnik.

“I live six houses from there,” said Colleen Paul. “There are 43 children between my house and that place.”

Kennewick spokeswoman Evelyn Lusignan said the neighbors saw one of the home’s residents around the neighborhood and became concerned about who he was.

They eventually figured out where he lived and that the house is a transition home for people leaving prison or treatment, and who have struggled with drug or alcohol addiction.

Another public meeting is planned for 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 2, at the police station.

City officials said staff from the state Department of Corrections and Benton County Sheriff’s Office will join Kennewick police and planners to share more information about transitional homes.

Clean and sober

A trained counselor with two master’s degrees, Ouradnik runs two similar homes on the east side of the state.

Corrections officials asked him to expand into Kennewick to help people move back into society, hetold the Herald.

He bought the home on Fourth Avenue in January, renovated it and started housing people in February.

Ouradnik said his residents have to follow about two and a half pages of rules, including a curfew, attending a weekly house meeting and no drug or alcohol use.

The people living there are randomly drug tested and have to keep in touch with their corrections officers. The state inspects each home before it starts up, Ouradnik said.

“This is a structured housing facility,” he said. “This is simply a clean and sober recovery house.”

He uses a philosophy similar to Oxford House, which also has structured living for people recovering from drug or alcohol addiction.

But where the Oxford House organization grew up around small collections of recovering addicts renting homes, Ouradnik said Progress House is run by a benevolent and caring dictator — him.

Concerned about sex offenders

When Colleen Paul first spoke to the council, her main concern was about sex offenders living near kids in the area.

Of the nine people staying at the home, five have a sex offense on their record, Ouradnik said. He accepts Level 1 and 2 offenders, who are the least likely to reoffend, according to Kennewick police.

Ouradnik also pointed out that the home is for those who are recovering from drug and alcohol addiction, not sex offenses.

Officers work with Ouradnik to monitor the Progress House sex offenders, who seemed to be of the greatest concern for neighbors.

The Kennewick residents are not the first to push back against group homes and transitional houses, of which Kennewick has 17.

During the more than 40-year history of Oxford House, cities and insurance companies tried treating the transitional homes differently, according to Oxford House’s website.

The organization won a series of cases across the country, including two federal court cases where judges said the group homes can’t be treated differently then other single-family homes.

Kennewick follows the same rules, said Lusignan, noting transitional houses are allowed in single-family housing zones.

Planning department officials also plan to talk Tuesday about the rules for the homes.

Ouradnik said his home should be the least of their concerns.

Within two miles of Ouradnik’s home, 10 registered sex offenders are living, according to the Benton County sheriff’s website. Just two of them are staying at his transitional home.

“People have more to fear from less regulated places. I’ve just brought what’s going on in their community to light,” he said. “My guys are the least of their concerns.”