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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2012-02-29 Uproar Over Sober Houses (Palm Beach Post)POST EXCLUSIVE Drug and alcohol recovery homes Local residents rally against growing presence UPROAR OVER SOBER HOUSES Sober houses dot Lake Park Residents complain of loitering, messy yards, and erratic behavior at some apartments and homes shared by recovering addicts. RICHARD GRAULICH Staff Photographer Homes for recovering addicts changing neighborhoods. By CHRISTINE STAPLETON Palm Beach Post Staff Writer There is big money to be made in put- ting a roof over the head of a newly sober addict. An oceanfront rental for six in Del- ray Beach will bring in $200,000 a month. In Wellington, a five -bedroom house can net as much as $45,000 a month. And in Lake Park, where a bed in a sober house or apartment goes for $200 a week, it often depends on how many recovered alcoholics and addicts the landlord can fit in the home. The price usually includes treatment, but not in the rental they call home. Margaret Holland knows this. West Kalmia Drive in Lake Park, where Are they licensed? Community housing affiliated with treatment centers YES: Must comply with local fire, safety and health codes. Sober houses NO: Advertised as drug -free rentals with no treatment. Curfews, drug testing and work requirements are optional. Holland and her husband built their wa- terfront home "from the ground up" in 1977, is now home to dozens of addicts and alcoholics, most with just a few months of sobriety. They live in duplexes and apart- ments owned by recovery businesses. "The entire street is almost full of sober housing," said Holland. She has found con- doms in her front yard and her fence now leans where men have hopped over it. In the past three years police have been called to the sober residences in her neigh- borhood 61 times for suicide attempts, car repossessions, fights, loud music and lar- ceny, among other incidents. See SOBER, 12A ► Signs of discontent: Placards on Seaspray Avenue in Delray Beach reflect residents' attitude toward sober houses. TAYLORJONES Staff Photographer `* 12A THE PALM BEACH POST REAL NEWS STARTS HERE • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2012 POST EXCLIJSIVE Drug and alcohol recovery homes Laws against sober houses tough to defend ► SOBER from IA "The town was not even aware they were here," she said of the recovery homes. Holland is among a growing army of home- owners exasperated by what they see as the clandestine proliferation of halfway houses and sober homes infiltrating their neighborhoods. Sober housing is a subsidiary of Palm Beach County's world-renowned substance abuse treatment industry and it is bringing to light the regulatory loopholes, lack of oversight, legal conundrums and stigma of addiction. Delray Beach and Boca Raton, home to some of the most exclusive rehabs in the country, have fought the most public and costly legal battles — and lost. It is not so much the treat- ment centers that bother residents, it is where the newly sober addicts and alcoholics live when they get out of treatment — in single-family rental homes in residential neighbor- hoods. Among the complaints: Turnover is high, relapse is common and furniture and personal belongings are dumped on curbs when tenants move. Tenants loi- ter in front yards to smoke. "Individuals of unknown background and history wander throughout the neighborhood where our children play, individuals that would not ordinarily be in our neighborhoods," according to the campaign website of Patricia. Archer, who is running for the Delray Beach City Corn- ' mission. TAYLOR JONES/Staff Photographer Support for sober -house rules: Delray Beach residents who favor limits on sober houses raise their hands at a city commission meeting last week. The city did enact restrictions but now faces a lawsuit from the Caron Foundation, an addiction treatment provider, which claims the city is breaking anti -discrimination laws. Too close for comfort? Margaret Holland has lived in a waterfront home on West Kalmia Drive in Lake Park since 1977. Now, many of her neighbors are newly sober drug addicts and alcoholics. The police have been called to her neighborhood 61 times in three years for suicide attempts, fights, theft, noise and other problems. Lake Park" t-: Silver Beach Rd. properties up to code and complying with regula- tions is expensive. "I would much rather live 'next door to something with a license," she said. The department's Sub- stance Abuse and Mental Health Program Office licenses and monitors residences identified by li- censed treatment centers as community housing. Treatment centers must identify the location of their "community hous- ing" and provide proof of compliance with local fire, safety and health codes. Community housing is typically found in residen- tial neighborhoods. It pro- vides recovering addicts and alcoholics a sober, ment complex with a pool and dock, are licensed community housing for Comprehensive Addiction and Rehabilitation Educa- tion. Three clients live in the duplex and 24 others in apartments across the street. Staff is on property around the clock. The fur- niture is changed every six months. There are curfews, drug tests, secu- rity cameras and manda- tory 12-step meetings, said Richard DiGregorio, CARE's chief financial of- ficer. Controlled situations CARE spent about $300,000 renovating the properties, DiGregorio said. Clients are picked ••n •r gr., ,, rim nrnnd [ran efforts are nothing more than veiled attacks direct- ed specifically at recovery housing, where turnover is high and occupancy is often greater than three. Such attempts have failed in court and come with collateral damage. Property owners who lease their hdmes to snowbirds during season and those with live-in servants are subject to the same restrictions. If towns enforced such ordinances against sober housing but not seasonal rentals or those with live-in servants there could be serious le- gal consequences, Green said. "If local government wants to regulate that twrav thav iiict rant tarffpt Other towns are equally concerned. Boynton Beach code compliance has cited Palm Tree Recovery for op- erating a group home with- out an occupational license in a rental complex on South Seacrest Boulevard. Neighbors on Doubletree Circle in Wellington say the clients at Butterfly House, an 8,000-square-foot recov- ery residence for women described the clients a "nice" and "respectful" bu don't belong in a residentia neighborhood. "Why do they have to be in a residential neigh borhood like this? It's like having a bed -and -brea fast next door," said neigh- bor Marilyn Klein. Butterfly House charg- es clients $7,500 a month. It is not licensed and pro- : vides supervision but no treatment on site, accord- ing to its website. Behavioral Health of the Palm Beaches is convert- ing a former Clarion Inn hotel and Perkins restau- rant at Lake Worth Road and Florida's Turnpike into a 165-bed treatment center. Residents of nearby retiree communities are worried • about having recovering • addicts and alcoholics in their neighborhood. "We have tried to put them at ease," said Lucy Peccerillo, the center's director of corporate de- velopment, adding that the company has agreed to every condition neighbors have requested and even • brought in deputies to dis- cuss security concerns. I didn't realize and the owners didn't realize; we had no clue they would react like this." In Lake Park, Randi Aberns owns Women of Dignity, which operates three sober residences, including one on a street 1 where she used to deal drugs. Aberns, who has been clean and sober for 13 h years, has spent tens of f thousands of dollars on r attorneys to fight restric- tions in the towns code. 4 * 1 • ••• M•YY11Y %FM k s t She won the most recen 1 battle, after the county's Office of Equal Opportu nity ruled that a Lake Park - code prohibiting three or more unrelated people from living together is discriminatory. No treatment is pro- vided at Aberns' lushly landscaped residences, exempting her from need- ing a community housing license. Still, she believes anyone who owns and op- erates a sober residence should be drug -tested and that officials should create a new category of occu- pational license for sober housing. "You've got 10 million halfway houses without a license because there is no license," Aberns said. 'Very real' risks Robert Bozzone, chief executive officer. of the Comprehensive Alcohol- ism Rehabilitation Pro- grams, or CARP, in West Palm Beach, said stricter licensing would protect not only neighborhoods but also recovering ad- dicts and alcoholics who are preyed upon by un- scrupulous landlords. "There is no supervi- sion and support and that places clients and the neighborhood at risk," said Bozzone. "One of the things we know is that re - apse .is a part of recovery and if they relapse, they are going to use and get drunk in that neighbor- k ood. I think complaints s rom communities about a isk are very real." 1 Every year, more than c ,000 addicts and alco- h Source: Google maps CH RISTOPH ER'SMITH/Stag Artist t holies, mostly poor and chronic relapsers, seek - help from CARP, which is licensed by the state De- partment of Children and Families. When clients a CARP or high -end rehab complete treatment, they need a safe, sober place to live. Going back to their old neighborhoods, where they drank and , used drugs, threatens their sobriety. So many newly recovered ad- dicts and alcoholics end up in recovery housing. All recovery housing is not created equal. Some is licensed, monitored and inspected. Some is not. In Palm Beach County there are 105 licensed treatment facilities. No one knows how many unlicensed sober houses there are because they are not regulated. To wary neighbors, there is only one kind of recovery housing: the kind with relapsed addicts smoking crack, drunks staggering in at all hours, brawls, theft, overgrown yards and cigarette -strewn yards. f an agency is regu- lated by us, they are bound by a whole set of rules and regulations," said Cathy Claud, the Department of Children and Families' substance abuse service coordinator in Palm Beach County. Claud, who enforces Florida's substance abuse housing regulations, nows there are many ober houses out there nd some that should be t icensed but are not, be- ause getting a license, iring staff, bringing a 1 g while they continue trea ment. Although it is required, they are usuall fully staffed 24 hours a da days a week. Com munity housing is use solely for assisting client in the transition from th treatment centers to inde pendent living. There is n treatment on -site. By contrast, sobe houses advertise a sobe environment but offer n case management, clini cal services or affiliation with licensed treatmen center. Sober houses fal outside of DCF's authority. t In sober homes there may s or may not be curfews , drug testing, work re quirements or restrictions on visitors and sex. t- about 8 a.m. and taken to not CARE's treatment facility y on Northlake Boulevard ay, about a mile away. Unfor- - tunately, DiGregorio said, d the public does not distin- s guish licensed facilities, e such as CARE's, from un- 1 - licensed sober or halfway o houses. "This is not a tradi- r tional halfway house," r DiGregorio said. "This 1 o is completely different. p We are very proud of our b s buildings and have had t very little problems." n 1 The most recent addi- tion to West Kalmia's re- 1 a t Unscrupulous landlords Although, local zoning ordinances often restrict the homes' size, many landlords ignore those restrictions. Sober houses usually do not maintain staff on site 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This is the housing that often infuriates neighbors and reinforces the flop -house stereot Down the street from Holland 's Lake Park home, a barbecue grill sits in the front yard and a mismatched collection of chairs is lined up in front of a hardscrabble apartment building. Its owner, Todd Dry, said he leased all four two -bedroom apartments to a single tenant, who sublets to recovering ad- dicts and alcoholics. Dry said he gets $830 a month for each bedroom. He does not know what his tenant charges the sober men living there — as many as three in each apartment. Dry said he does not know whether his tenant has a community housing permit or what kind of ser- vices, if any, he provides. His tenant did not return a call for information about he property. Two other properties on Holland's street, a duplex t nd a waterfront apart- t covery housing is another , waterfront apartment - building being renovated. It is next door to Holland's L 4,300 square -foot home. Holland has complained h to and called police about o her neighbors — most re recently a couple she re found having sex in a car a parked in her driveway. The police told her to get ev camera and a security to system. Exasperated, she c researched her neighbors. br She followed the vans and pulled corporate records off the Internet. "Why should I be the police for the town?" Hol- land asked. "They keep telling me there is nothing they can do." She is right, according to James Green, a West Palm Beach attorney who has successfully defended treatment centers and halfway houses in housing disputes. Under the Ameri- cans With Disabilities Act and the Fair Housing Act, addicts and alcoholics are a protected class. That means recovering addicts and alcoholics cannot be restricted to living in cer- tain areas anymore than the blacks or Hispanics. own Some communities, pay such as Boca Raton and hom Delray Beach, have tried thei to restrict the number of " unrelated people living help under the same roof. Tran- to sient housing initiatives "Bu also have sought to limit give urnover in rental proper- my ies. Green said those people with disabilities," Green said. "They are go- ing to have to enforce it across-the-board." The latest legal battle began last week, when the Caron Foundation filed a awsuit against Delray Beach, claiming new rules the city commission passed on Feb. 21 violate federal anti -discrimination aws. The commission ap- roved limits on the num- er of times rooms can be rented in a single-family eighborhood and •a cap on the number of unre- ated tenants, three, after ngry residents packed he meeting. egal difficulties The Caron Foundation opes to open a licensed, ceanfront recovery sidence for six wealthy covering . addicts and lcoholics. "I think the city and veryone involved needs be ; careful about the oncept of using a broad ush and saying that we're cramming six peo- ple into a house," said An- drew Rothermel, Caron's executive vice president. Learning to form ,health}; sober relationships with roommates, family, friends and neighbors without us- ing drugs and alcohol is a daunting and vital part of recovery, Rothermel said. "It's facially discrimi- natory against someone who needs to live in a community to recover" Rothermel said. "Having six unrelated people liv- ing in a house should not be criticized; it should be celebrated for doing the right thing." Holland understands goal is noble. But home- ers like herself are ing the price as their es values drop and r safety concerns rise. I applaud them for ing people who want recover," Holland said. t the Constitution s me the right to enjoy property, too." christine_stapleton@pbpost.com