by Marissa Eusebio, KUAM News Tuesday, January 13, 2004 E-mail this article Printable version KUAM Toolbar Web Widgets Get RSS headlines

Government waste is an issue that appears to continue to plague the island despite efforts to expose it at all levels. From credit card abuse to off-island trips, the waste continues at the expense of the taxpayer. One fully furnished investment sitting in Tamuning made by your local officials remains to be utilized to this day.

In the village of Tamuning, on a street known for extravagant homes, sits a modest white house with blue trimming, a balcony and a fairly sizable lawn. Upon entering a door leading into the kitchen, the setting appears no different from a regular home, complete with a kitchen containing basic necessities like dishes, a microwave, a refrigerator with bottled water, Frosted Flakes for breakfast and even custard pie for dessert, and if that isn't enough, a quick peek into the cupboards reveals all types of goodies.

But wait, there's more...you paid for it. 

As you walk further into the house, you see remnants of Christmas with the adjoining room furnished with all the types of supplies needed to run a typical office. And yet what you haven't realized by now is that while it's a bit on the lavish side of the spectrum when comparing it to the average home on Guam, it's not even a residential house.

The house is a half-million dollar, locally-funded investment used called The Rays of Hope Home, and it in are supposed to be children with mental and developmental disabilities. But the only children you'll see are the ones drawn by students and taped onto the walls as decorations.

According to Guam Legal Services director Attorney Daniel Sommerfleck, this multiple bedroom two-story home was purchased more than a year ago by the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse through the Guam housing urban renewal authority with local funds for the sole purpose of providing respite and day treatment to disabled children. And for GLS, the absence of these children in the home to this day is just one issue they're frustrated with.

Said Sommerfleck, “As a protective advocacy when we looked at that house the first thing that struck us was [that] this building isn't accessible to persons with disabilities.” Only recently has construction begun for the installation of an elevator, which will provide access from the garage to the second floor. 

But even that is raising concerns as Sommerfleck points out that having a second floor in a house for children with serious emotional disabilities can pose as a threat to their safety when taking into consideration their mental state, specifically citing possibilities of self inflicted injuries. All it takes is for one child to jump off the balcony...

“From my experience and I'm thinking of all the programs I've visited and even worked at, I can't think of a single one that was a two-story building,” Sommerfleck added.

Even things like marble floors in the bathrooms serve as safety concerns says Sommerfleck, because when the floor gets wet, a child could slip and become seriously injured. But to dig deeper into the situation is to identify the root of the problem. “The delays in the opening and the difficulties in getting that program up and running I think are indicative of the failures we're seeing to provide service to children here on our island,” the attorney explained.

GLS officials say the problem has resulted in having to send children off-island to receive treatment and services that are supposed to be provided on Guam. But that still has yet to happen. “We continue to send them to programs off-island, we continue as a community to say, ‘Oh we're not ready to take them back’, ‘Oh, just leave them there a little bit longer’, ‘You know, we're working on it, we're working on it.’ Well, childhood doesn't last forever.”

In some instances, Sommerfleck says children have aged into 25- to 30-year-old adults, never receiving the care they are entitled to on Guam, and furthermore leaving the local government to spend between $150 to $500 a day for these individuals on a program that could be provided on-island. 

In the meantime, KUAM News made calls to the Department of Mental Health's Child Adolescent Services Division administrator Annie Unpingco, however we were told that she is currently off-island and will not be returning until next week. We also attempted to contact Mental Health director Peter Roberto, but he did not return our calls.