Recovery program ousts tenants of affordable housing

Lolita Harper

COSTA MESA -- A large trash bin poised outside of an Eastside

apartment complex Friday marks the beginning of a chance for a sober life

for some and the devastating end to affordable housing for others.

Morningside Recovery, a Newport Beach-based business, recently bought

an apartment complex in the 1700 block of Orange Avenue with plans to

convert the building into a sober-living home, manager Jeff Yates said.

While Yates and his colleagues gear up to open shop in the newly

purchased complex, Carrie Stevens and her neighbors are hard-pressed to

find new homes. The existing residents were informed they have 30 days to

vacate.

Stevens is a single mother who receives housing assistance from the

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“I struggle to support myself and my 9-year-old daughter, and it’s

nearly impossible to find HUD housing on the Eastside, especially in a

month,” Stevens said, sobbing.

Many of the renters in the complex receive some sort of financial

assistance. Many said the previous owner was amenable to accepting

housing vouchers -- a practice that is not common for many property

owners. But when the owner’s husband passed away recently, the property

became too much responsibility and the elderly woman sold it, residents

said.

Yates said he feels for the tenants, but there is nothing Morningside

Recovery can do.

“I know it’s a tough situation, but unfortunately that is the cruel

world of business,” Yates said.

Yates said the current rents were so low that it was difficult to find

a lender. To prove the property would turn some sort of profit, any

potential owner -- be it a sober-living home or not -- would have to give

the tenants notice, bring the building up to code, raise the rents and

then invite back those who could afford it.

All of this must be done in a timely fashion because, just as the old

adage says, time is money, he said.

Stevens said she’s owed more time. Yates said there is no room for

negotiation.

“There is no other alternative,” he said.

Aside from the conflict between the tenants and the new corporate

owner, group homes and sober-living homes in general have been a sore

spot for city officials in recent years.

Since the November 2000 adoption of Proposition 36, which allows

certain drug and alcohol offenders to seek rehabilitation instead of jail

time, crops of group homes have surfaced in Costa Mesa, Mayor Linda Dixon

said.

“I’m frustrated too,” Dixon said. “Local government has very little

control over those issues. Our hands are so tied, I cringe.”

State law severely limits the city’s regulation of group homes, she

said. If a group home does not offer medical assistance or any type of

therapy and has six or fewer residents, it is exempt from local control.

According to a 1999 city study, Costa Mesa had more alcohol and drug

recovery facilities than every city in the county but Santa Ana, which

only had one more home for each category. The report also found that as

many as 20 of the group homes operating in residential neighborhoods had

been violating city ordinances.

Councilman Gary Monahan said Friday that he wants to ensure

Morningside Recovery is operating above board. Many sober-living homes

provide a valuable service, Monahan said, but some try to fly under the

city’s radar. He made it clear he would not judge the facility before

researching it further.

Perry Valantine, assistant development services director for the city,

said the sober-living facilities are basically on the honor system.

“If they are truly operating within the legal limits, they can go

without asking for special permits,” Valantine said. “But if we find out

otherwise, then we deal with it.”

Yates said Morningside Recovery is in the process of applying for

state certification, which is only required of facilities that offer

counseling or medical service.

“We have no plans to do that now but are in the process just in case

we feel a need to fill that desire,” Yates said.

* Lolita Harper covers Costa Mesa. She may be reached at (949)

574-4275 or by e-mail at o7 lolita.harper@latimes.comf7 .