Cherylie Fuller was surprised to see two group homes listed in the Homewood Resource Guide under "transitional housing." She knew there were more and set out to prove it.

The Homewood-Brushton Community Collaborative is using her more thorough list to mount a zone defense against a proposal for another group home next month.

On April 19, the Zoning Board of Adjustment is scheduled to consider both sides in a proposed home at a former convent on Hamilton Avenue for people in substance abuse recovery. A separate decision on a proposed group home on Bricelyn Street for chronically homeless men is expected this week.

Members of the collaborative say Homewood is saturated with homes for transitory, unstable people, especially considering the neighborhood's own instability from decades of economic decline, drug dealing and gun violence.

Attorney Bob Kennedy represents parties fighting both homes. He said the zoning code takes saturation into consideration but doesn't say what saturation is, leaving it open to interpretation.

The collaborative's public safety committee has scouted out six or seven group homes and a methadone clinic, said Ms. Fuller. Some are marked, others are anonymous. Unmarked homes protect residents' histories; their advocates say that's the point -- to relieve them of a stigma and let them live normally.

It's no coincidence that homeless shelters, methadone clinics and drug rehabilitation housing typically locate in poor or underpopulated neighborhoods. The real estate is cheaper, more of it is vacant, the neighbors usually don't organize against them and tough streets aren't intimidating -- the work of recovery is every bit as tough.

But too much recovery can start to look like abuse.

"We are becoming a dumping ground," said Don Patterson Jr., spokesman for the Afro-American Music Institute.

The existing group homes in Homewood established themselves without opposition. Now, feeling inundated, the Homewood collaborative wants its neighborhood to recover, too.

After Ms. Fuller and her husband dropped fliers in 70 mail slots to organize their neighbors, she said, "the phones started ringing."

On April 19, the Center for Spirituality is expected to ask the zoning board to change the designation of the former Holy Rosary convent, on Hamilton, so it can house up to 20 men and women in treatment for substance abuse.

The former convent sits between a Carnegie Library branch and the Afro-American Music Institute, and across from the Homewood Early Childhood Center.

Jim McManus, director of the Center for Spirituality's Fresh Start program, said the old convent "is a perfect fit for what we want to do. We intend to have a place for clients who don't have supportive housing."

Fresh Start would have structured programming, curfews, 24-hour security, and rides to recovery meetings and appointments, he said.

"[Residents'] medical needs are met elsewhere," he said.

He assured that Fresh Start would not take people with a violent history or accept court referrals.

"We understand the community's concerns," said Mr. McManus. "One reason we asked" for a continuance from an earlier hearing date "was to set up a community meeting."

One is scheduled for 5 p.m. Wednesday at the Carnegie Library branch.

"These aren't bad guys, I know," said Mr. Patterson, speaking of the group home leaders, "but you would hope they would be more sensitive. We'd like to see this stay an educational corridor. In the summer, we have kids' activities all around here, and we're getting five new houses" down the street.

Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl recently made a news media event of presenting a $30,000 grant to the developers of five Ryan homes, to be built a 20-second stroll away from the former convent. The homes are among much new construction being planned by community developers to infuse Homewood with the stability of home ownership.

In the meantime, said Ms. Fuller, the area is anything but stable.

"That man was cut in half in front of my house," she said, alluding to the Feb. 19 death of Antoine Williams, of Garfield, when his body, hanging out of a car that was gaining speed, hit a steel pole. He had reached into the car after being given fake money for real cocaine, police reported.

"We have [drug] runners all up and down these streets," Ms. Fuller said, "and they're talking about putting in a home for people trying to recover from drugs" down the block.

A Homewood native, Ms. Fuller moved back 14 years ago after living in Washington, D.C., and Penn Hills. She bought a house that she completely renovated and now she and her husband own the house beside it, too. He mows and they pick up trash that collects in the empty lots where the new houses will go. They have talked about moving but want to honor what they're vested in, she said.

"I think we have a say in this," she said. "We own property. I think we have a right."

If the zoning board approves changing the designation of a former group home for juveniles this week, Residential Resources would operate a home for 14 chronically homeless men on Bricelyn Street. It would replace a similar program in Manchester.

At the zoning board hearing on Jan. 25, a psychiatric nurse from UPMC testified that the Manchester site has accredited staff, regular audits and curfews, and prohibits drugs, alcohol and weapons. At the same hearing, residents and entrepreneurs pleaded for relief from additional social service populations.

Mac McMahon, who operated the predecessor program, Safe Haven, in scattered sites in Manchester, said, "Many neighbors didn't even know we were there."

"The fight comes when you put a facility-based program into the neighborhood," he said. "When it's scattered sites, you can't tell them from other people. The men are clean and they're not carrying bags around with them. They're like anyone else. There are people with the same social problems who have four walls to hide behind."

John Nicholas has invested 40 years in his home, and Mr. McMahon's points do not alter the fact that, as Mr. Nicholas puts it, "they're dumping them on us.

"Why are they moving from Manchester? I'll tell you why. They're cleaning up the North Side, just like they're cleaning up East Liberty," he said.

He lives close enough to the Bricelyn home to watch how the residents behave when they come and go.

"If I have to sit on my porch and watch, I will," he said. "But I didn't retire for this."