A company that works to give housing to “high-risk” past drug and alcohol users is the owner of a home in Buffalo, New York, where the body of a missing child was found last week, according to WKBW-TV.
The Buffalo Police Department reported that the body of 12-year-old Jaylen Griffin was discovered in a home on Sheffield Avenue in the city on April 12, according to WGRZ-TV.
The boy’s body was discovered by a maintenance worker in the attic of the building.
Jaylen had been missing since August 2020. His family said he went to a grocery store but never returned.
Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said the boy’s body had been concealed in the attic for an extended period of time, though he would not speculate for how long.
“I do want to extend my sincerest sympathies to the family of Jaylen,” Gramaglia said, according to WGRZ. “This department has conducted extensive searches, and I want Jaylen’s family to know that we are working diligently to bring the next closure for the family.”
The home in which the body was found is about five miles from where Jaylen was last seen.
.@BuffaloNYPolice say the search for 12-year-old Jaylen Griffin has ended after his body was found in a home Sheffield Ave. — 5 miles away from where he was last seen.
Commissioner Joe Gramaglia says it was apparent his body was there for a “significant amount of time.” @WKBW pic.twitter.com/ldGuUS6Jvb
— Kristen Mirand WKBW (@kristen_mirand) April 15, 2024
Balloons & candles are now outside the home where 12-year-old Jaylen Griffin was found dead in the attic on Friday. He had been missing since August 2020. @WKBW pic.twitter.com/7qn8uAUWBU
— Michael Schwartz (@MSchwartzTV) April 17, 2024
The body was identified using dental records, according to the Erie County Medical Examiner’s office.
A more extensive autopsy will be performed to try to determine the cause of death. The autopsy results may take up to three months to complete, officials said.
“That’s going to hopefully reveal to us some forensic evidence that is going to be significant in the investigation,” acting Erie County District Attorney Michael Keane said.
County records show the home where the boy was found is owned by Sunrise West LLC, which operates Spectrum Health & Human Services, according to WKBW.
According to its website, Spectrum Health has government contracts to “offer safe, stable, and affordable housing to individuals that are homeless or non-homeless with disabling conditions.”
The company says it operates a housing service that “caters to high-need, high-risk individuals with co-occurring mental illness and substance abuse issues.”
Spectrum Health has been sued over the problems neighbors say they have suffered at the hands of the “high-risk” tenants of its building on Sheffield Avenue, WKBW reported.
Should high-risk people be housed in family neighborhoods?
One neighbor filed a lawsuit in 2022 alleging a troubled tenant threw a burning mattress out of the house that ended up causing $130,000 in damage to the home next door.
Another neighbor told WKBW that she was assaulted by a female resident of the home, and added, “I don’t feel safe in my own house.”
Certainly, halfway houses for people with troubled backgrounds are important to help those who can be reintegrated into society, a place where they can find a fresh start. But it is also incumbent on any group or company offering that service to be very sure about the people they are dropping into an otherwise safe and trouble-free community.
It seems likely that an investigation will ultimately find that Spectrum Health failed the community — especially the family of Jaylen Griffin.
Unfortunately, liberals have an obsession with inappropriately shoving troubled people into neighborhoods where they likely do not belong because of the danger they present to the other residents.
