Problem of group homes very real

By: MARK MUSH - For The Californian | Wednesday, April 25, 2007 10:14 PM PDT ∞

In my last column, I wrote of how effective our City Council is. Although I was quite complimentary about Temecula and its leadership, that doesn't mean there aren't potential problems on the horizon that can affect every homeowner in the city.

I alluded to one major potential problem near the end of that column in describing Maryann Edwards' work on group homes. A group home is typically a private residence that is used by recovering drug addicts, alcoholics and people with criminal records for rehabilitation purposes.

The bad news about these homes is that currently cities can do very little, if anything, to control where they are located or how they are operated.

Think it can't happen in your neighborhood? Take the example of Newport Beach, a city about the same size as Temecula but one that has about 100 group homes within its city limits.

If a city as powerful and wealthy as Newport Beach can do nothing to prevent drug addict group homes, what can we do? Even Edwards, in a March 17 article in The Californian on group homes, seemed to agree with the assessment that Temecula is probably powerless to prevent group homes from moving onto your street ---- for now.

At the least, however, she would like to see some form of notification if a home for recovering crack addicts ---- I'm sure everybody's idea of a perfect neighbor ---- is next door.

Part of the blame for this lack of control lies with the Federal Fair Housing Act of 1988, which like most federal programs, starts with the best of intentions but quickly lapses into problems for the average American. This act treats recovering alcoholics and addicts as a disability therefore you are not allowed to discriminate against such people ---- regardless of the disruptions to the surrounding neighbors.

One such home, as cited in the Orange County Register on Dec. 10, 2006, was the subject of 20 visits by the police in a one-year period.

The offenses were mostly for parking violations or medical reasons, but this group home did have one call for a domestic disturbance and another for assault with a deadly weapon. Those 20 law enforcement visits works out to about one visit by the police every two to three weeks.

Is this something you want in your neighborhood? I didn't think so.

I have one suggestion to potentially curb this problem and that is to ban parking on streets at night. This proposal could limit the number of people who could conceivably live in any particular house.

Every house in the city would be limited to parking in their driveways or in their garage. You could still have possibly four drivers living in a house ---- based on the average size of a Temecula driveway and a two-car garage ---- but you won't have the six to eight adults living in one house.

This proposal might have the added bonus of limiting the ability of illegal immigrants to cram 10 to 15 adults into one house.

Unfortunately with no effective way to control this problem and with Newport Beach as an example, how long will it be before we start talking about Temecula with 10, 20 or more group homes?

-- Mark Mush of Temecula is a regular columnist for The Californian. He can be reached at markwmush@hotmail.com.

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