Newport staff calls sober-living operator ‘cooperative partner’

The Newport Beach City Council on Tuesday is expected to review an agreement entered into between Newport Beach and a sober living home operator in 2009, which placed limits on the number of recovering addicts the group can house in the city.

The agreement limits the number of client beds permitted in Sober Living By the Sea’s homes and licensed treatment facilities to 204 beds citywide. Once one of the largest sober living operators in Newport Beach, Sober Living By the Sea reduced its number of clients by 78% between May 2008 to September 2015. They currently have 44 client beds in Newport Beach, according to the city staff report.

The agreement also mandated that the operator move a number of facilities to increase their distance from other rehab homes, maintain a 1,000-foot distance from elementary schools and day care centers and drop its lawsuit against a city ordinance limiting the spread of rehab homes.

Sober Living By the Sea is required to submit a report to the city twice each year showing that they have operated under the terms of the agreement and the City Council reviews the report annually. City staff is recommending that the council find the operator in compliance with the agreement.

City code enforcement has responded to five complaints — one for a resident smoking on the beach and the rest for parking violations — at Sober Living by the Sea properties this year, according to city records.

“After far more challenging times in the mid- to late 2000s with various residential care facility operators, we have found [Sober Living By the Sea] to have been a cooperative partner with us, including voluntarily distancing units from each other,” City Manager Dave Kiff wrote in an email.

The city passed an ordinance in 2008, which effectively prohibited new group homes housing seven or more residents from opening in most residential areas and required existing group homes to complete the same permitting process required of new ones, including an extensive public review process.

The ordinance was fueled in part by residents who complained about parking problems, cigarette smoke, noise and an ever-changing cast of neighbors stemming from the proliferation of group homes in West Newport and along the Balboa Peninsula.

Sober Living by the Sea sued the city shortly after the ordinance took effect, saying the new measures discriminated against recovering drug addicts and alcoholics, who are protected by the federal Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988.

The act prevents discrimination against people who are in a “protected class,” which courts have found includes recovering addicts, who are considered protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The city has dealt with several legal challenges since it passed the ordinance in 2008.

Most recently, the city paid $5.25 million to three sober living home operators — Pacific Shores Properties, Newport Coast Recovery and Yellowstone Women’s First Step House in July to end a seven year lawsuit between the group homes and the city over the law.

The Newport Beach City Council meeting begins Tuesday at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 100 Civic Center Drive.