“California is a great state to open an addiction treatment center, and an even better state to open a sober living home,” one how-to site advises.
“On the positive side, the state has a high number of folks in recovery and a very low level of regulation for sober living homes … making it an ideal home for your sober living organization.”
But not, perhaps, quite so ideal for the neighbors.
Costa Mesa knows this well: It has spent years fighting a lonely and expensive battle to regulate oft-disruptive recovery homes, urging other cities to stand by its side as it tries to protect the quality of care for recovering users, as well as the quality of life for residential neighborhoods. Other cities hesitated.
But a funny thing happened: Costa Mesa’s regulations have borne fruit, even as they’re challenged in court. Today there are far fewer addiction treatment centers and recovery homes in Costa Mesa, and far more in many other Orange County cities, than there were in 2017, according to state data.
As the Rehab Riviera migrates, Costa Mesa’s issues are becoming other cities’ issues. Those cities are now lining up behind Costa Mesa, hoping to finally bring the drama and trauma of unwatched, unprofessional treatment and recovery centers to the attention of state lawmakers who can do something about it.
“The on-the-ground reality is that many sober living businesses are unregulated by either federal or state officials and are springing up in the middle of residential neighborhoods, often in close proximity to each other, which creates an institutional type of environment,” says a friend-of-the-court brief in support of Costa Mesa, filed in federal court by the League of California Cities, the Association of California Cities of Orange County, and the cities of Newport Beach, Fountain Valley, Mission Viejo and Orange.
“This case threatens many cities’ ability to separate different and incompatible land uses – e.g., keeping the oil refinery…
Read the full article here
