Dozens of angry neighbors filled the halls of the East Side Neighborhood Resource Center in Manchester on Monday night demanding answers from Department of Corrections officials.
"We're not here to listen to statistics!" shouted one angry neighbor. "That's not why any of us are here! We're here because of our children! You put these people here in our neighborhood full of children!"
The meeting was in response to a "temporary/transitional home" that was recently discovered by neighbors living in the area of Clinton Street in Manchester.
Connecticut Department of Corrections officials say four sex offenders who are out on parole live in that home, which is meant to rehabilitate them and, ultimately, integrate them back into society.
Neighbors at the meeting supported the mission of the housing, but say their neighborhood isn't the appropriate location for it, citing families and children who live in close proximity.
At the end of the meeting Scott Semple, the interim director of the Connecticut Department of Corrections, said he heard the message loud and clear and work work on a solution.
"I came here on my own because I felt this was important to this community and I wanted to hear what you had to say," said Semple. "I've heard it."