Rehab Housing in and around the country has started to become a pretty big problem. Being that we generally care less what other people may employ themselves with…or what service they may want to provide other members of the society – a track record of minor and some major abuses by certain Rehab facilities around our City and County are making some supremely negative impacts.
It starts like this: Some convicted scoflaw druggie person has a rich family and needs them to go to Rehab. For a mere $10,000 a month…their kid can go with the likes of Lindsay and Britney..and spend some time in Home Environment Rehab Centers, some with less than six other people to deal with their addictions and follow the desires of courts…not to send them to jail..but to a place where they might overcome their very bad self destructive habits.
Fast forward to 2008 and a very overcrowed legal and prison system. Fast forward to using the Rehab Home solution any possible time that it can be considered…..even for convicted felons and for crimes that have nothing to do with scoflaws or self abuse. Consider the mental patients, two time losers of violent crimes and others that certainly won’t be able to afford $10,000 dollars a month. Consider the heroin, crack cocaine and meth addicts that have been relegated to homes somewhere near you.
The State of California wanting to support Private Enterprise has again made it too easy to get a license to create a Rehab home. Virtually anyone could buy a house and start their own Rehab facility..either as a Franchise of an existing Rehab Group….or even as their own…without local “Use Permits” or oversight. The three people the State has to check on these homes for cleanliness, orderliness, health and safety regulations….can hardly deal with those homes that include overcrowding and public safety offenses that may occur.
So, after six years of hard work by local activists in the City of Newport Beach…..the current City Council had the courage to pass a “Conditional Use Permit Requirement” for Rehab Homes. Right now those same Rehab homes are challenging the local law in the courts and may soon reach State or Federal Supreme Court level. These people are claiming “discrimination against minorities that have health problems”. They claim that these people are seriously “Disabled”! So, we want to know – where are their “Disabled Car Stickers”?
In the meantime, the City of Newport Beach is marching on..and we are very proud of them! It has taken a tremendous amount of courage to face down this seemingly never ending group of “health speculators”! These people were able to get “sub-prime loans on quickly appreciating beach property” and charge humongous rates for their patients. The worst part was that these people get money directly from the State of California….for caring for these many convicted felons and drug people. These facilities are now fighting back…..but without a “Conditional Use Permit” which opens the process to Public scrutiny……(Police, Fire, Health and Code Enforcement Officers!) the abuses will never stop. Many “child molesters” and violent criminals are situated within these Rehab homes…..and the impact to children and others within these areas is a concern.
The worst part of the Rehab problem in Newport Beach in particular was the density. Several facilities (that look like normal apartments or homes from the outside!) could be found within two or three house of each other. Crowds of these patients could be found gathering outside, parking abuses, noise – not to mention the health and safety concerns of the bi-gender patients living in these locations.
Hail to Newport Beach…and hopefully to all the other cities in Orange County that will have the will to Regulate Public Safety against the forces of these greedy health speculators!
Amazing how the right to do what you want with your property goes right out the window when NIMBY raises its ugly head. Most of these concerns are addressed in current regulation but as is pointed out there is little money being spent on inspectors to enforce the regulations and laws governing these group homes. Local ordinances will just infringe on homeowner rights under the guise of community standards. Whats the word used now? Oh yes, Bolshevik (Communist for those of us old school).
*Guess you don’t live next door to one of these facilities and guess you are pretty sure….they aren’t coming your way anytime soon?
The Red Menace is everyway…as all of us know….but out of control expansion of Rehab homes have nothing to do with Homeowner rights! If you think that is that Megan’s Law is not necessary…If you think that State placed violent Felons there on a lesser charge are no
problem…If you think that hypodermic needles found on your lawn or sidewalk are little danger to your elementary school age children….Yeah,
Bolshevik….world. Should have never let the
People’s Republic of California let these people
do this stuff in the first place – ya think?
If Newport gets rid of the “Rehab Houses”, will that mean the city will have to supply low-income housing? What is the trade-off?
I once lost a great peninsula apartment to those druggies. No mercy! Losers! ;.
Mary,
Well, as you might have noticed in Irvine….they
are building up rather than out. Sadly, even in
a safe environment…we will eventually face a similar fate to meet State Requirements for “Affordable Housing”!
Ok, ok Bolshevik was a bad choice of words.
What I should have said was that the solution has to include the enforcement of existing regulations made possible by funding a legion of inspectors at the state budget level. The underfunding of our regulatory scheme on a federal and state level has to stop.
I can see that there is also a need at the local level to act when the state does not. My issue with NIMBY policies and property rights asside the rights of the community need to be protected.
Thank you for the information.
I understand that the “affordable housing” is meant by constructs like the Dunes community for seniors.
I asked my mom (wife of Planning Commissioner) if it was true that these rehab homes were being abolished. She said it was unlikely the city could uphold their stance with the state. It’s kind of like that other state law that allows one person per 50sf of living space in any house.