City seeks more control over group homes

Elise Gee

COSTA MESA -- Now that city officials have an inventory of group

homes, the next step may be for them to go to the state or federal level

to gain more control over the facilities.

The City Council received a report this week that revealed Costa Mesa

has more group homes per 100,000 residents than any of its immediately

adjacent cities. The council asked for the report after two group homes

catering to recovering addicts and alcoholics applied for conditional use

permits.

Councilwoman Linda Dixon raised concerns that the number of group

homes in the city were changing the character of residential

neighborhoods because of the increased traffic, noise and parking issues

usually associated with them.

She is pushing for more local control of the facilities, but state law

limits how much regulation cities now have. State-licensed group homes

with six or fewer residents are exempt from local regulation.

There are 86 known group homes in the city for the developmentally

disabled, foster children, recovering drug addicts and alcoholics, the

homeless, battered women and seniors, according to the report. Also, the

city estimates that there are 20 sober-living houses within the city.

Dixon has attributed the high numbers to what she calls the city’s

“heart of gold” and socially responsible attitude. Some residents have

long complained that Costa Mesa has an unfair share of the county’s

social service organizations.

Nancy Clark, who runs Recovery Center on Victoria Street, said Costa

Mesa also makes an attractive location for group homes because of low

rental costs, access to transportation, job opportunities, proximity to

freeways and the city’s general livability.

Clark has a conditional use permit for her 37-resident facility.

However, Heritage House, which operates six homes between 2212 and 2218

Placentia Avenue, is not required to get conditional use permits because

each of its facilities houses six or fewer residents.

“I’m concerned about an overconcentration in areas and about the

social responsibility of our community and what we also need to take into

consideration for our residents,” Dixon said at a recent meeting.

Diane Gomez lives near the Yellowstone Womens First Step House on Bay

Street, which has an application pending with the city to legalize a home

for up to 14 residents to stay 10 days.

“They’re trying to do a good thing and we’re not trying to shut them

down,” Gomez said.

Rather, Gomez said she would like to see the number of occupants

limited to six or seven.

Residents have complained of traffic and parking problems and noisy

support group meetings. Yellowstone also would like to hold open

Alcoholics Anonymous meetings once a week.

“My problem with their application is they want to put 14 people in

their home for up to 10 days,” Gomez said. “If you do the math it

translates to up to 500 in one year. Anyway you look at it, no matter how

good a job they do, it’s got to impact this neighborhood.”

Oftentimes, group homes aren’t battling just complaints about traffic

and noise -- they’re battling public perception about the type of people

they help, Clark said.

Clark said it was an uphill battle for her when she applied for her

conditional use permit. To her surprise, she said surrounding residents

expressed fears about being murdered in their beds and some neighbors

didn’t want to let their children out in their frontyards.

The collective result has been the driving underground of many

sober-living and recovery homes because of their unpopularity, Clark

said. She also said she suspects there are more sober-living homes in

Costa Mesa than the city was able to find out about.

However, Clark said she is not necessarily against more local

regulation if it means better quality homes for people.

“If you’re doing what you’re doing well you should not be averse to

scrutiny,” Clark said. “But until you get beyond ‘We don’t want you

here,’ then people are going to continue to operate these underground.”