Pottstown eyes local regulation of ‘sober homes’ for recovering addicts, alcoholics

POTTSTOWN — The borough has more licensed “sober homes” for recovering addicts and alcoholics than all of the rest of Montgomery County combined, according to a state site that allows the public to search for them.

Eight of Pottstown’s 10 for-profit licensed recovery homes are all run by the same company — Another Clean Day — and they are all clustered within an eight-block radius in the downtown core, from York to Washington streets; and from South Street to Jefferson Avenue.

The other two licensed facilities, run by Unity Sober Living Homes, are also for-profit and also located within that same radius.

The state database, created by the Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, lists each home’s capacity. When taken together, it makes for 82 people in recovery treatment at licensed facilities in an eight-block cluster in the middle of Pottstown. The remainder of Montgomery County has 76 such clients at licensed homes spread among Lansdale, Audubon and Hatfield, according to the database.

But that is just the tip of the iceberg given that the vast majority of such recovery homes are not licensed and Pottstown has “many many more” such unlicensed facilities, according to borough officials. And they are much harder to keep track of.

That’s why the borough is attempting to regulate them, since the state is prevented from doing so by the federal government.

What the state has done is create a licensing system, by which certain standards must be maintained, such as in-house counselors, best practices and other things meant to improve chances of recovery and minimize impact on the neighborhood. However, the licenses are voluntary and not required, although the state has tried to incentivize agencies to participate by limiting state funding for unlicensed facilities.

But state funding may not be much of an incentive given that these facilities, either licensed or unlicensed, “can be quite lucrative,” said Assistant Borough Solicitor Matt Hovey.

“If you take a house you could rent for $1,200 a month, turn it into a recovery house for eight clients and charge them $300 per month, you’re making $2,400 per month instead,” Hovey said.

Council has scheduled a vote at Monday’s meeting to authorize the borough solicitor to draft an amendment to the zoning code which will attempt to get some measure of local control over these facilities. The action is being undertaken at the recommendation of the council’s Ordinance Review Committee.

Hovey explained the situation to the council during Wednesday’s work session.

The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits discriminating against homes for people with disabilities and so, because those in treatment for addiction or alcoholism are considered by the law to be disabled, this federal protection applies to group homes and sober homes, Hovey explained. They must be treated, according to federal law, like the home of “a traditional family.”

But in fact, most occupants of these facilities are far from their families because treatment protocol calls for getting recovering addicts out of the “enabling” environment in which they first became addicts. Those who go back to the same environment are more likely to relapse, Hovey said.

The problem, Hovey said, is that when an addict does relapse, say fails a drug test or breaks some other rule, “many of these places will just throw them out on the street and that becomes problematic for the neighborhood and community where they’re located,” he said. These former clients “are in a foreign new place; their family may not even have been notified they’ve been thrown out, and so they are more likely to become homeless.”

Anyone who has been watching the headlines in recent months knows there has been an increase in the homeless population across the country, with many factors, like an affordable housing shortage, involved in the higher numbers; and there has been much debate in Pottstown about how to address the issue.

During the council’s Jan. 2 reorganization meeting, council members heard from two people who have dealt with the impacts of having recovery homes nearby.

“I am only asking for other towns to share in this burden. Allowing 50-plus sober houses in this town, we will never reach revitalization,” said Sheila Dugan who, with her husband Gene, owns Grumpy’s Handcarved Sandwich and lives a few blocks away from the business and next to one of Another Day Clean’s sober living homes.

“West Norriton has a policy that they can’t have any sober houses within 650 feet of the previous one,” Gene Dugan told the council, whereas there are two right next to each other on the street where he lives.

The state database indicates that several of Another Day Clean’s homes are next to each other or on the same block. Two are across from a childcare facility.

Charging that such homes “are money makers,” Dugan said when residents are kicked out of such places for failing a urine test, “where are those guys gonna go? Back on the streets. They’re not helping nobody. I have a 16-year-old daughter who watched a guy masturbate on the street in front of Jean’s Lingerie. Fortunately, the cops got there in the nick of time,” he said. “Four nights later, he was on the bottom of my steps, asleep.”

According to the company’s website, it operates homes in Pottstown, Phoenixville and Stowe. The website states, “each Another Day Clean residence is named after an individual who has passed away as a direct result of a substance use disorder.” It also indicates that “there is a resident house manager in each home.”

Rules posted on the website include: “Residents are expected to attend a minimum of five 12-step meetings per week and to obtain a sponsor and a home group within 30 days; and residents are expected to attend the weekly mandatory house meeting, and must always sign out when leaving the house.”

The last rule posted reads: “The following are grounds for immediate dismissal: drug use, violence or threats of violence, any sexual activity within the house, and theft. Honesty and integrity are core values of our program, and these values are expected to be upheld at all times.”

The Unity Sober Living website indicates its facilities offer 12-step programs, financial literacy, credit rebuilding programs, criminal history reform programs, entrepreneurship programs and free haircuts.

“Our houses are located in the business section of Pottstown Pennsylvania. Each of them are within walking distance of many reputable 12-step meetings, public transportation, employment opportunities, recreation areas and many other fun activities as well,” the Unity Sober Living website indicates. “Each of the homes include a house manager, as well as an assistant house manager to ensure the ideal structure necessary for success.”

The borough ordinance change, work on which will likely be authorized Monday night, will attempt to get more control over these facilities but must be worded and enforced, if adopted at all, carefully.

Four years ago, the Pottstown Zoning Hearing Board denied an application for a group home and, as a result, the borough got sued. The case was settled, but borough officials have been wary of relying on the ordinance now on the books.

So one of the approaches available is to make such recovery homes subject to the borough’s rental ordinance given that none of them are likely to be owner-occupied. As rental property, sober homes and recovery homes must register with Pottstown’s licensing and inspections department, as do all residential rental properties, and be subject to certain regulations and be available for regular inspection if they want to keep their rental license, without which they would not be allowed to operate.

The solicitors will try to craft an ordinance amendment that “threads the needle” and is more resistant to legal challenge than the current one and “focuses on operations to protect the people who live there,” Hovey said.