Control of rehab centers sought

For several years, Newport Beach residents have complained about problems involving drug and alcohol rehabilitation homes, and city officials have responded that their hands are tied by state and federal laws.

Newport Beach City Councilwoman Leslie Daigle hopes to change that. She wants the council to sponsor state legislation giving cities more control over drug recovery facility locations and how many of them operate in the city.

“What’s happening now is that we get complaints about noise and litter and loitering,” Daigle said.

“If people are telling us there’s nothing we can do about it [because] it’s in the hands of the state, then we need to go advocate at the state level for more local control.”

Other cities echo Newport’s complaints about rehab facilities. Laguna Beach City Manager Ken Frank said people have alleged that recovery home residents are selling or using drugs and that they’re involved in fights.

“People are worried about ? [the homes] in a residential neighborhood with their kids,” Frank said.

Cities can put some requirements on homes with at least seven people but are limited by federal fair housing laws, which protect disabled people ? a classification that includes people recovering from drug dependency ? from discrimination.

State law bars cities from regulating homes that house six or fewer people. Such homes must be treated like any single-family residence, Newport Beach Assistant City Atty. Aaron Harp said.

“What we’re seeing is residential care facilities have six or under to avoid local regulation,” he said.

Treatment homes must be licensed by the state, which also monitors them, Harp said, but “they don’t deal with the issues that impact local communities.”

Daigle said she wants the city to be able to regulate “the concentration and proliferation” of the facilities.

Harp said possible legislation would include regulating drug recovery facilities like other group homes, which must be at least 300 feet apart “so you don’t get a compound type of feel in a residential neighborhood,” or allowing cities to require some type of license.

It’s not clear how soon legislation might come forward. Daigle wants to get other cities on board, but Frank warned that others have tried and failed.

“Would we be interested in some type of coalition? Yes, we’d be interested, but we’d need to know that it has some chance of success,” he said.