[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 171 (Tuesday, October 16, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1409-E1410]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CONSTITUENT COMMENTS ON SOBER LIVING HOME PROBLEMS
______
HON. DANA ROHRABACHER
of california
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, October 16, 2018
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
[[Page E1410]]
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.
____________________