[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.

                          ____________________