Lois Miller dreamed of building a better home for people branded "crazy" and banished to mental wards.
Day after day, she clung to her belief that many of these men and women she encountered belonged not in institutions but in homes, real homes, where they could make the transition to society.
Finding neighbors willing to live next door to people fresh out of a state mental hospital, however, can be tricky, delicate business.
In December, Miller thought she had found the perfect home, one that would provide patients round-the-clock supervision without letting them simply languish in institutions. Four months later, her dream is in danger of being shattered by neighborhood opposition and an abrupt turn about by the developer.
Omni House, a non-profit rehabilitation program for the mentally ill founded by Miller in 1981, signed off on a deal to buy 12 two-bedroom condos where 24 patients would live -- part of a 900-unit complex still under construction off Ordinance Road in Glen Burnie.
The developer, Cromwell Fountain Associates, joined Omni House, County Council members and state lawmakers in praising the agreement as a bold model of a more humane alternative to institutionalizing the mentally ill .
But within three months, such warm praise had disintegrated amid fears of patients "going berserk," endangering other residents of the sprawling condo complex.
The homeowners association voted unanimously to oppose the purchase.
Officials from Cromwell Fountain made it plain that they wanted out of the deal, first in five separate meetings, then in a letter asking Omni House to void the contract and, finally, in an April 4 letter hand-delivered to Omni House canceling the contract. One Cromwell official cited in a complaint filed Monday was quoted saying he didn't want "Crownsville (State Hospital) moved to Cromwell Fountain."
Omni House leaders refused to agree. Joined by a national advocacy group for the mentally ill, they filed a federal lawsuit calling the case a clear violation of a 1989 law forbidding housing discrimination against the mentally ill.
U.S. District Court Judge Marvin J. Garbis granted Omni House's request Monday to temporarily forbid Cromwell Associates to sell any of the 12 units. The judge is to hear from both sides May 8 in Baltimore.
"The problem is that there is widespread housing discrimination against the mentally ill across the country, and this is yet another example," said Beth Pepper, an attorney representing an unidentified Crownsville State Hospital patient who was to move into one of the 12 condos.
"We have to change people's attitudes about mental illness, because in fact people with mental illnesses make very good neighbors," added Pepper of the Washington-based National Mental Health Law Project.
The lawsuit claims Cromwell breached its Dec. 20, 1990 contract in violation of the Fair Housing Act and seeks unspecified damages to compensate Omni House and a client identified only as "James G." for "economic loss, emotional distress and deprivation of civil rights."
Cromwell Fountain officials and Cromwell's attorney, Jim Praley, declined comment on the case yesterday. Praley did say, however, that Omni clients now living at the complex would be allowed to stay and that the 12 units would not be sold before the case is decided.
The deal began unraveling after CromwellFountain residents read that the state would pay for three-quarters of the $1 million purchase. The state also agreed to provide a $250,000 low-income loan.
More than 100 residents of the 300 occupied units signed a petition protesting the sale. Lawmakers were deluged with phone calls. Many residents complained they had been caught unawares.
"We never heard anything about it until we read about it," said Bryan Moorhouse, president of the civic association. "The basis for our opposition was that we envisioned and were lead to believe that this would be a complex of owner-occupied units. Omni House was going to rent those (units) out."
Moorhouse admitted that other fears and concerns spurred the community to take action. "Personally, speaking not as a board member but as a father, there is a fear of the unknown," said the father of three children.
Other parents worried about the safety of their children when they learned that manic-depressive and schizophrenic people would be living in the community. They also feared that their property values would plummet once Omni House clients moved in. A resident complained at the mere thought of swimming in the same pool as the mentally ill, a local lawmaker said.
"I was not aware of it until I started getting all these calls," said Sen.Philip C. Jimeno, D-Brooklyn Park. "I must have had 30 or 40 residents who contacted the office right after each other."
Jimeno and Delegate W. Ray Huff, D-Pasadena, arranged a meeting between the residents, Omni House leaders and the development group April 2. Most of the residents complained that they were never informed about the impending purchase. The legislators agreed to talk to Gov. William Donald Schaefer about the problem and try to find a solution, Jimeno recalled.
Some of the confusion, fear and misinformation could have been avoided, Jimeno said, if Omni House had contacted the legislators and residents before the sales contract was signed last December.
County Councilman George Bachman agreed.
"Elected officials were just inundated with calls from people afraid these new residents would go berserk or hurt people," he said. "They feared the worst, make no mistake about it. They just weren't given enough information to reassure them."
Jimeno said he advised Miller to contact him in advance of any sale after outraged neighbors succeeded in stopping Omni House from buying a house in Brooklyn Park earlier this year. The sale was supposed to be one of the first in a move for greater financial freedom by Omni House, which leases apartments in Americana, Hidden Woods or the Rainbow complexes in Glen Burnie.
"To be realistic, there'sa great difficulty in locating those facilities in residential neighborhoods," said Jimeno, who supported the Brooklyn Park residents who fought the purchase.