[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 175 (Tuesday, October 30, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1478-E1480]
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 30, 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
seventh group of these constituent letters below:
I am a proud Southern California native, educated in our
fine public elementary schools, and hold degrees from the
University of Southern California. After living in and
working in most of the nation's major metropolitan cities, I
was fortunate to find my slice of paradise in Huntington
Beach 30 years ago. Living in the downtown area has been a
wonderful place full of life, activity, and best of all a
close-knit neighborhood family. In downtown, our homes, due
to the very close proximity to the Pacific Ocean, are
extremely close--it is akin to living in a sliver of land
separated giant condominium complex. My house, the oldest in
my neighborhood is unique for many reasons, one reason that
has only recently become an unbearable issue is that all of
our rooms are directly within 6-8' from the rooms of the SLH
next door. Therefore, my teenage daughter's bedroom is within
6 to 8' of the SLH kitchen, eating area and side outdoor
patio. In essence, we hear everything--conversations, fights,
fits, paramedics speaking to the hospital when there is an
overdose, slamming doors at all hours of the day and night,
sexual positions and experiences of the ``clients,'' each and
every way known to smoke, snort, inject, drink, any and all
substances and the last time used (usually within that day).
I could sum up the last 25 years of living in my neighborhood
in one sentence--a wonderful place to live. Unfortunately,
with the disaster that has been forced upon us by greed and
inaction, I can no longer sum it up as wonderful, but quite
the opposite. I will try to keep this as succinct as
possible, but the only real way to keep it succinct is for
all of you to come and live in my house for a day--it's as
far away from wonderful now as I can reasonably imagine.
So, I write this as a fed-up homeowner, parent who can no
longer feel safe for my daughter, active community member who
has no answers because our city leadership is hog-tied by
bureaucracy, and as an elected school board trustee for the
Huntington Beach City School District who sees the impact to
our district. So, I see this issue from many different
perspectives.
In summary:
Homeowner/resident/parent/human:
My house has been relegated nearly worthless. I tried to
sell and only received very low offers because no person in
their right mind wants to live in my situation. No one needs
to disclose next door is a SLH, there are throngs of men and
women loitering both front, back, across the street, all over
the street smoking, using foul language, and usually at least
monthly there is an overdose, so we often wake up to sirens
and the conversations regarding the entire incident. This has
become so bad that my daughter now is living primarily out of
the house because she is afraid to walk in the front door,
won't be home alone, cannot sleep or study from the smoke and
noise, she's been cat-called walking home from school, had
unimaginable things said to her right in front of me and when
I have confronted these people, I was told to ``be careful
bitch, we'll burn your house down with you in it.'' So now my
daughter is too afraid to sleep here at night because she has
nightmares of being burned in the house alive. I've paid
hundreds of dollars in vet bills because they toss their
cigarette butts into my side yard, and if I can't get to them
fast enough my dog has eaten them and become toxic to her
(dog is only 9 lbs). My trash bins are filled and spilled
over with the most disgusting trash--we now have rats. Our
sidewalks are littered with hundreds of cigarettes and trash
and when I have asked these people or their visitors to
please put the trash in a trash can not the street, my car
was keyed. I've had both the front and back of my car
destroyed from these folks driving out of state cars DUI and
crashing into my parked car. When
[[Page E1479]]
I called the owner of the house to complain (note: none of
the owners of these houses live anywhere in Huntington
Beach), he told me that he would be working on buying the
house on the other side of me to make sure to ``squeeze me
out'' and ``shut me up,'' Apparently, it appears he's going
to win. We have these houses in multitudes in my
neighborhood, all of them have multiple issues and now seeing
an OD HBPD/HBFD call is nearly a daily occurrence. I've had
so much angst and anxiety over just living here and what are
we going to have to deal with and live through today it's
taken a toll on my health, and certainly my daughter's. Why
do they have more rights than my child does?
As a school board member, we are always working to ensure
our children and community safe, clean schools, and an
excellent education. We also look forward at our demographics
and enrollment to properly prepare. We have planned for some
declining enrollment, but families in our district schools,
primarily in our largest elementary and middle school, which
serve the downtown neighborhood are losing enrollment at an
alarming rate due to families moving completely out of
Huntington Beach because of this SLH issue. There are at
least 4 SLH homes that are directly in the walking path to
both the elementary and middle school that hundreds of small
children walk through that now on a daily basis are forced to
walk through groups of SLH ``clients'' smoking, spitting,
urinating, shooting drugs on the sidewalk, using unimaginable
language, cat-calling young girls, loud foul language music.
I've had parents crying and children scared to go to school--
not of school but getting to and from school. So, our planned
attrition in those schools has more than doubled our research
and it is primarily because these families no longer feel
safe and that our city has any interest in their well-being.
So, in most cases, they take a large loss on their home value
and leave. The vandalism and theft of our schools has
increased as well.
I want to make it very clear that I am an advocate that
anyone that needs help should be able to get the help they
need. However, these SLH homes are not helping these people
who desperately need it, they are not-so-well-hidden drug
dens that are destroying our neighborhoods. They need
quality, medically-supervised help and counseling--not a
frat-house for drugs with absolutely no oversight, no
counseling, no supervision. The current SLH next door to me
is now both male and female and has at least 12 but up to 15
people. If I am being forced to pay through taxes and
increased insurance premiums to cover this care, then please
get them the help they desperately need--and what has been
going on here is certainly not help--it's a greed grab to the
detriment of both the neighborhoods and the people who are
seeking help. There is a reason all other states have curbed
this process--for as impossible as it is to do business in
California, it is inconceivable that this industry remains
without any regulations, still allow un-checked body
brokering, curbing, cross-state human commerce.
I will end with this--I am tired of hearing that we are
just complaining because of NIMBY. This is NOT a NIMBY issue.
This madness and crisis is NOT in my backyard. It is in my
backyard, my front yard, my side yard, inside my house. So, I
would like to ask that if our elected officials from
Washington to the California Legislature continue to refuse
to do anything and continue to deny allowing our elected City
officials to govern Huntington Beach as local governing
bodies were intended for, then please, I beg of you . . . buy
my house because no one else will but another SLH. If I can
be of any help to you, please do not hesitate to contact me.
I think I speak for all of us--we want help for those that
need help, but appropriate help in the appropriate
locations--because what is going on is a lose-lose for
everyone BUT the unscrupulous operators and landlords. But
the biggest losers are our neighborhood children.
Bridget Kaub,
Huntington Beach, California.
____
We have had up to 3 sober living facilities move into our
quiet single-family neighborhood. It has been a nightmare.
Our children walk past these residences and live next door to
many of them. They have parties, horrible language, hookers
show up, police visits, etc. I have found syringes in my
yard, weed on my front and cigarettes everywhere. They
speed through the neighborhoods and we have a constant
rotation of individuals. Plus, we now have tons of new
cars parking on the streets. Tattooing in the garages.
There are often more than 6 people. Vans roll up daily and
they all hang out waiting to load up. Smoking looking like
they rolled in from Compton. My daughter has a daily
glimpse of their underwear as their pants barely cover
anything. Cars drive up dropping off suitcases and dogs
almost weekly. We have only seen them drug testing once. I
grew up in this neighborhood but worry daily about our
safety and my daughter when she needs to take the bus. I
believe that this has also brought in the rash of
individuals now parking in the neighborhood sleeping
nightly in their cars. Something needs to be done quickly.
You have homes well over a million dollars paying taxes
and waking up daily to these situations.
Amy Santos,
Huntington Beach, California.
____
We want our neighborhood back. In the last couple years, it
seem the city of Huntington Beach has opened the doors to the
sleazy businesses with little to no regulation required. Most
aren't even licensed. There are no less than 8 within two
blocks of my house. I live in the south east neighborhood of
downtown Huntington Beach. We have had at least two
overdoses/deaths in the nearby homes. We constantly see shady
behaviors, loitering on our sidewalks, trash, drugs, drug
paraphernalia, needles not to mention smoking outdoors so we
all can inhale. The traffic from their transportation
vehicles is excessive not to mention the countless Uber/Lyft
rides coming and going at all hours of the day/night. My 13-
year-old daughter and friends are intimidated by the shady
characters as they walk by being verbally harassed and
googled by them. These people don't come from our
neighborhood and most aren't even from this area or state.
They import them from out of area to come ``vacation'' in our
city. Once money runs out or the insurance stops paying for
this scam they are left on the streets and join the ever-
increasing population of homeless. This is a HUGE problem and
our government needs to impose strict regulations on the
SLH's. It's a scam for insurance companies and it's a scam
that these so-called businessmen take these desperate
people's money for nothing. In turn these business men have
become rich and are expanding operations exponentially.
Please do something! These are neighborhoods not the place to
conduct business or run a so-called detox hospital from a
multimillion dollar house.
Doug Daniels,
Huntington Beach, California.
____
Today I'm writing this letter not only for me and my family
but for all the family's in Huntington Beach whose lives have
been yanked out from under them.
I've always lived in Huntington Beach and I can't believe
how fast our lovely beach town has gone down the drain. We
moved about 7 years ago to a bigger house that's close to
where the neighbors all BBQ together, look out for each other
and just enjoy the quietness, the smell of the ocean, the
perfect place to raise our kids. This may sound silly, but
Huntington Beach used to feel like we were all one big happy
family. We moved out of our old house because of a guy that
was hooked on Crystal Meth. Our kids were terrified of him.
My daughter was having nightmares that this person was trying
to murder me. So, my husband got 2 large dogs and when we
found this house and this neighborhood we fell in love with
it and moved.
Three years ago, the house next door went up for sale and
these ``nice guys'' lied of course because that's what
addicts do and said their daughters or sons were moving in.
My husband owns a roofing company and ended up doing the roof
for the new owner. Come to find out he has several homes here
in H.B. He lives in Atascadero. He's an investor. He doesn't
care about our neighborhoods. He doesn't have to live here.
So, he's making a ton of money leasing these houses out to
so-called sober living homes. The residents of Huntington
Beach are paying our hard-earned money, paying high property
taxes so these leaches prey on parents who would do anything
to get their child well. So, these SLH's are getting money
from the federal government, state government and insurance
companies. Greedy people that couldn't care less about these
kids. They do ``curb'' them when the money runs out. We've
seen it happen many times. Now they have nowhere to go but to
the streets. Now our cars are being stolen or broken into.
Our kids bikes--well I everyone's bikes are being stolen. The
crime here and homelessness is over whelming! And the police
can do nothing about it because their hands are tied but they
will turn around and arrest a homeowner for having a loud
party. Come on. Where is the justice? Our police and our City
Council should be protecting us and our children. Yes us . .
. the tax payers. It seems that we have no one around here
looking out for us and it's honestly hard to wrap our heads
around. We can't leave our windows open because of the
cigarette smoke, marijuana smell, loud fights, cussing like
you would not believe. Cigarette butts and trash and;
hypodermic needles on our property and all over our poor
community. We can't enjoy our rooftop deck anymore for the
above reasons. The overdoses and ambulances that my 3 kids
have witnessed is beyond horrible. We, our community, are
prisoners in our own homes. Some of the residents next-door
told my neighbor that they were going to burn her house down
with her in it! Come on. This has got to stop! Don't we have
any rights? How about our children? Would you want to have
drug deals and drug houses with people you really have no
idea what their story is. These places move out in the middle
of the night and you guessed it. A new SLH moves in. We don't
see them going to meetings or anything. No medical staff on
sight. Body brokering kids for MONEY. Then kick the kids to
the curb while they drive their Tesla's and Bentley's. Our
kids try and go to sleep at night because they have school in
the morning and it's impossible most nights due to the
screaming and cussing. I do believe that people need help and
the ones that really want it, deserve the right help. But not
right smack in the middle of our residential neighborhoods.
We live across the street from a bar and a liquor store! Who
in their right mind would seriously think that a great place
for a SLH? And I'm not exaggerating when I tell you there are
at least 4
[[Page E1480]]
or 5 on almost all the streets in the numbered blocks. And
nothing can be done because ``they'' are protected. Please
let it be our turn to be protected again. Let the people that
need help go to a real Detox and recovery home. I've heard
the Betty Ford Center and Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach have
wonderful dependency programs and they CARE about the people
that are there to get help. Many places are available for
people to get real help. And I doubt that would be across
from a bar and liquor store. Or around a lot of innocent
children and families. We are trying to teach our kids not to
steal and to care about others, not to be afraid of all the
strangers. We are just trying to keep our children away from
drugs and alcohol and needles. There is a place for recovery
it's just not in our residential neighborhoods.
This is really a plea for help and I hope we get some help
soon because it's just getting worse every day.
Bobby Taylor,
Huntington Beach, California.
____________________