Constituent Comments on Sober Living Home Problems

Floor Speech

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Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, I rise again regarding the hearing held by the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice on September 28, 2018 on the issue of sober living homes. At that hearing, I had the privilege of testifying in support of my bill, H.R. 5724, to restore local oversight over sober living homes. As part of my testimony, I submitted to the Subcommittee letters from many of my constituents about problems with sober living homes caused by current federal law preventing appropriate local oversight. For the benefit of my colleagues and the American people, I include in the Record the fourth group of these constituent letters below:

A sober living home was across the street from me and my family for one year. Three more were around the block from me and those residents did not have parking. Our street was filled with parked cars going directly into these sober living homes. In addition, our streets were constantly littered with trash, needles & cigarette buds. Since friends of SLHs are not allowed to go within a certain distance to the SLH property, young male adults would sit under my basketball hoop smoking cigarettes in front of my then 12 and 10-year-old kids, waiting for the occupants to come outside. The police were called on at least 3 occasions with problems with the house across from me, and numerous occasions with the homes around the block. I have witnessed 3 clients of SLHs being taken away on stretchers in ambulances, with police involvement. Young adults who relapse or are kicked out of SLHs run amok through our residential streets breaking into cars and houses, buying and selling drugs in our neighborhoods filled with children. The amount of SLHs in Costa Mesa are a major problem, just ask our CMPD and businesses throughout our city. Our CM City Council wants to reduce the amount of SLHs in residential neighborhoods based on complaints from residents and businesses. Every city should have a say in this and be able to vote on local ordinances. Thank you in advance for considering this bill. Keith Frainie, Costa Mesa, California. ____

The house next door to me was purchased by an investor who owned numerous sober living facilities in Costa Mesa and throughout Orange County. His company name was [REDACTED]. The owner is [NAME]. He remodeled the home and told me he was going to sell it. He rented it to a chain of rehab locations [REDACTED] that was finally exposed as fraudulent and closed. Then rented it again to another rehab company. In 7 years I was victimized as a single senior who had been a resident for 25 years in the same location. Constant turmoil, chain smoking, profanity, etc. I reported all to the state, code enforcement, and city officials. My health was seriously affected to the point of surgery and trauma therapy. I tried to pay for 1/2 of a block wall, to rent the house to another tenant, and pleaded to no avail with the owner. All of the complaints are on record even the meetings in person with the owner of the rehab with code enforcement. I was told my property value had decreased by 40-60% because of the neighbors. There are numerous empty commercial facilities that can be used for this purpose. As a volunteer for [REDACTED] for 30 years I empathize with their cause, but not at the cost of serious illness and trauma to their neighbors. Contact numbers provided were not answered, staff was transient and unavailable, even the state Department of Health said they would not come from Sacramento to investigate and even if they did they would not be able to catch them in the act. Please for all parties concerned confine rehab facilities to commercial buildings not to residential neighborhoods. Thank you. Marilyn Brooks, Costa Mesa, California. ____

I like to share with Congress that my representative, Dana Rohrabacher, is misleading his constituency once again. He has neglected to share the first line of the summary with us and is trying to create a law to pander to his base. The summary reads:

Shown Here: Introduced in House (05/09/2018) Restoring Community Oversight of Sober Living Homes Act of 2018.

This bill amends the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to remove substance use disorder services from the list of essential health benefits that must be covered by health plans.

The bill also amends the Fair Housing Act to address state and local zoning laws regarding recovery facilities (buildings that are occupied by individuals who are handicapped by drug addiction or alcoholism and that prohibit controlled substances and alcohol). The bill specifies that federal anti-discrimination laws do not bar any state or local zoning laws that prohibit recovery facilities in residential areas. Recovery facilities must also comply with all state and local zoning laws in order to receive federal funds.

I do not approve of this bill or my representative.

I look forward to my story being inserted into the hearing record and the Congressional Record. Or is that just for people who agree with you? Deborah Wilder, Westminster, California. ____

My husband and I bought our house in 2001 and have lived here ever since. In fact, I grew up in this tract in a home on the other side of [REDACTED] Middle School, as have many of the neighbors. I can tell you it is a quiet, safe neighborhood where people take care of their homes and generally take pride in their surroundings. This past April the house next door sold [REDACTED], owned by [NAME], and turned into what we later learned was a Sober Living house, registered for up to five females. In reality, the house is less of a sober living house and more of a quasi ``half-way house''/``drug house''.

The house is a 5 bedroom/2 bath house with a two-car garage. What initially started as more of an inconvenience due to the multiple cars coming and going, blocking our drive way, and actually backing into my 77-year old mothers car when she came to visit, has turned into something much more disturbing. Several of the initial residents who portrayed themselves to my husband as a couple of college students and friends, have long since moved out. Multiple other residents have arrived, stayed a few days, and left. Aside from overgrown grass, their dogs left outside overnight barking incessantly, and visitors at all hours of the night, the situation has grown more concerning.

In the early morning hours of Friday, August 24th, the neighborhood was awoken to multiple police cars in the area, two to three at any time parked in front of my house with lights flashing as they are interviewing one of the primary residents next door as an apparent drug sale went bad. This carried on for several hours as helicopters hovered over the neighborhood looking for several people that took off on foot. We later learned that several of these individuals were running from back yard to back yard down the street, knocking on windows, causing fear in the neighborhood. We later learned the next morning looking at video from our Arlo cameras that one of the individuals involved actually walked up to our front door and attempted to knock, before leaving. We also learned after looking at video taken from the neighbors across the street that a white truck carrying several of the individuals involved with the incident actually pulled into our driveway. This video was offered to the police and our video of the evening was forwarded to HBPD referencing Incident [REDACTED]. Whether they confused our house with the next-door house, or whether they meant to pull in to our driveway we will never know. But nonetheless, having someone pull into your driveway, drop off several people looking to either buy or sell or use drugs, walk up to your doorstep and then proceed to try and disrupt your neighborhood by running through backyards in the middle of the night is unacceptable.

In addition to pulling into our driveway and trespassing through our yard and attempting to knock on our door in the middle of the night, several people were discovered on the street adjacent to our house apparently using narcotics. Upon police arrival, they ran leaving an amount of narcotics deemed trafficking. One of the individuals trespassed across our property in an attempt to evade the police only to drop his wallet on our front yard and a compact multi-use tool with hammer on our driveway. HBPD gathered the evidence from us the following morning after we reported it.

In summary, in the four short months since [NAME] (address listed at [ADDRESS]) has owned the home and chosen to take on the liability associated with renting his property out as a quasi ``Sober Living''/``Halfway House''/``Drug House'', the situation has escalated from being that of a nuisance to being criminal and having the very likely probability of negatively impacting property values, endangering children at [REDACTED] Middle School just around the corner and if not stopped, being the beginning of blight in Huntington Beach. Kristen Sandberg, Huntington Beach, California. ____

I have seen the city of Costa Mesa go from a friendly, safe, community neighborhood when I grew up during the 70's and 80's to a drug and homeless infested area that is almost unrecognizable. I cannot believe our local government has no power in regulating the number of sober living homes. Please take a moment to check for how many SLH are in just Costa Mesa. There needs to be a way where the drug users can get help but not at the expense of the local residents. By allowing such a large concentration of SLH's in the city I fear for the safety of children and women. Please allow the local government to set standards and volume of SLH's allowed. When the patient is being treated at a SLH if their treatment fails or if their money runs out they are often displaced onto the streets of the city they are housed in. Just knowing this you can imagine how many homeless people in Costa Mesa come from these homes. That does not allow for the fact of how noisy, dirty, and unsafe these homes can be. Please fight for the average citizen by allowing local governments to establish limits and guidelines for all SLH's to follow. Don't forget us the average, tax paying citizen. Jeffrey Frei, Costa Mesa, California. ____

I submit my testimony from the perspective of a registered nurse. I have worked at a local hospital for many years, where I have taken care of patients who resided at a local sober living facility. They were always from out of state, citing that Costa Mesa and the surrounding area are the Mecca for sober living facilities, providing verification for the ``recruitment'' process to our city.

As a nurse, I confirm that we do a disservice to the sober living residents by not maintaining and demanding stricter regulation, assessment, and regular evaluation. The hospital must submit to regular inspection and regulation. Why should the sober living facilities not be held to the same level of standard, where they are equally responsible for the welfare and care of their clients? By allowing lax guidelines and loopholes like the Fair Housing Act to protect the owners, the vulnerable clients do not receive the care they need to succeed in their programs but instead end up in situations where they are allowed to engage in activities that harm their recovery and subject neighborhoods to various levels of harm as well. In regard to those clients who fail their programs and become homeless in our community, an added level of public health issues is created.

Better policies and procedures must be put in place to allow our local government to regulate the sober living facilities and provide the authority to help those in need without jeopardizing the health of the clients and our city as a whole. Lauri McMillen, Costa Mesa, California. ____

Many Thanks Dana Rohrabacher for championing this awful situation local residents are in. There are far too many mid 20-year old persons walking the streets mid-day wearing back backs on a daily basis. I can also tell they are not local residents. We've had a bike stolen since living in Costa Mesa. Lived in Newport Beach for 30 years without a problem. I pay approximately $14,000 annually in property taxes and do not feel safe in my own Costa Mesa community. People approaching me at gas stations asking for money. It's scary. Colleen Pilz, Costa Mesa, California.

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