[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.

                          ____________________