Reported by a resident in the ROLO Neighborhood who says that cars are "coming and going" all night long:
"Last night around 10 there was a shooting at the rehab house on Sunset. Looks like it was a drive by and there were probably 5-6 shots fired. The police were there investigating it. This is why these places should not be in neighborhoods. All they do is bring trouble and make our neighborhoods look bad. This would have never happened here if it wasn't for that house."Sober homes are popping up all over Lake Worth. This particular house is at 633 Sunset Drive. The owner owns 20 properties in Palm Beach County and it appears that this property was bought during the downturn of the housing boom in 2007. We have become a dumping ground for those investors who bought cheap and now taking advantage of federal dollars to convert their properties to Sober Homes or leasing them out to those who are operating them as such.
When you have "recovering" drug addicts living next door to you, your chances of encountering problems are real. The federal government (ADA) needs to stay out of our business as it has brought an unwanted element to our residential neighborhoods and put recovering addicts at the mercy of profiteers who all have found our little city.
Last year, a sober home opened up next door to my cousin's house and she is selling because of incidents that are not being corrected. She has been a life long resident of Lake Worth, has owned her home for decades, and now is thinking of moving elsewhere. Unfortunately, these sober homes are everywhere and drug addiction is on the rise.
Read SB 326-Sober Home bill by Clemens
I think we have to ask why here and why now. There is a huge heroin epidemic in the U.S. but the recent 20/20 documentary on this showed New Hampshire where it was extremely hard for those trying to get clean to even find a treatment facility close to them. If other states can regulate this, what is wrong with Florida besides a Gov. who may still be on the take for testing, and spineless reps?
ReplyDeleteRick Scott's idea to drug test was declared unconstitutional. With that said, I believe he was right in wanting drug tests for all those on the government welfare roles or on the government payroll. He certainly was "not on the take" and I find that remark really offensive, a remark started by left-wing liberals who never have anything nice to say about Rick Scott.
ReplyDeleteThere are not many options on the local level, however we do have a legal short term rental law license, business license and rental license ordinances, code enforcement and nuisance abatement ordinances.
ReplyDeleteFirst, if you search the property, they don't have a business license. That is problem number one, this is a rental property and they don't even comply with the basic, minimal requirements of City law.
If I'm a neighbor of this property, I'd report them to code/city. The business license review should trigger a rental property inspection which, depending on the employee, should be addressing number of "tenants", etc. We do have limitations on the number of tenants allowed in residential properties based on square footage, etc. I'd be taking photos of how many people live there, how many cars come and go, and I'd be keeping a log of how often the police are there, with photos. When they hit 3 times in 30 days, file a nuisance complaint with code. Residents and neighbors need to, sadly, be much, much, much more aggressive regarding these properties. We have codes that can (and should) be enforced, regardless of the ADA, they still DO have to follow our ordinances.
the only question anyone should be asking themselves ---why do i still live in lake worth
ReplyDeleteJeez Lynn, what's wrong with you. Beating up on those poor victims of drug abuse, it's not like they have free will and choose to go buying, selling, and using drugs. They just victims of over-protective parents who spoiled them to the point that they should never be held responsible for their own actions. That's what Obama is for, he will force the rest of us to carry their burdens. You are so not PC, I'm ashamed to read this blog now.
ReplyDeleteto 4:02 - Get your head out of your a-hole. Not all drug addicts are victims of over-productive parents who spoiled them. Some are veterans with PTSD, some are mentally ill and some have been prescribed addictive narcotics by doctors who wanted to make lots of money. Very few are from over-productive parents. I believe these people deserve to be helped BUT by legitimate rehab centers and not these so called sober homes. There are at least 10 sober homes registered in Lake Worth but there are also some that are not licensed. I think that our government made a mistake with allowing these homes to charge outrageous amounts for urine tests that cost pennies. The people in these homes pay a huge amount of money for nothing. The only person benefiting is the owner/operator. They live in expensive houses and drive expensive cars. There is little or no supervision in these so called sober homes. Untrained staff performing tests. I know of one person who was in one of these registered sober homes that paid the person collecting his urine specimen to pee in a bottle for him. There are legitimate ways to collect specimens AKA supervised collections. I have seen all ways that people have tried to cheat on these specimens.
ReplyDeleteThere are tons of these so called rehab or group homes for addicts, they are all over our northern streets, J, K, L, M, Federal. Crazy place we live in, these guys trying to get help to to the churches daily masses just to get their fix of free wine, receiving the blood of Christ, but for another reason, so much hypocrisy. They need help. The other big issue with it all is that a lot rent out their houses to all of these groups and people, yet keep the homestead exemption on them, yet do not live in them at all, they charge $1300, $2000, and up to $3000 a month for rent raking in the bucks, yet maintain their homestead exemption. Do you know Lake Worth has one of the largest homestead exemption fraud in the county? There are houses on every block here that lie, have homestead exemption for years, yet do not live there and rent it out and make bukoo bucks. The city has gone to hell, so many who are dishonest here.
ReplyDeleteHey bleeding heart "progressive liberal" at 6:54... Everybody's a victim, right? True the sober house operators are scum themselves, don't disagree with that, but the owner isn't the one shooting guns and needles into their arms. Tell all your addict friends to stop making excuses and expect everyone else to fix their loser lives. Newsflash druggies, free rent paid by your parent's insurance company in some crappy lake worth motel don't make ya sober
ReplyDeleteYou all can rant and rage about these sober homes, but you and we are left with little leverage. The rental license and business license angles don't work because these people are in a protected class under the federal ADA, and HUD rules against discriminating in housing and until you/we get the US congress to enact laws removing 'addiction' from the ADA classifications you/we are all left screaming into the wind.
ReplyDeleteOn a brighter note, recently neighbors on the south end of town were able to coalesce and mobilize their surrounding neighbors and in mass approached the seller and buyer in a RE transaction and by their physical and relentles presence made it quite apparent that a sober home was not going to be tolerated. That buyer went elsewhere in LW where the neighbors took no interest at the house down the street for sale until it was too late. So that is why it's so very important to become involved in your neighborhood association and get to know your neighbors. Together our voices are louder and more can be accomplished.
Meanwhile, make the call you all - and ask to speak to the officer, that way they will
show up to take your complaint - it might not be in 15 minutes because more urgent matters occur, but they will get to you. And as the poster above mentioned we must document these sober homes and their activities and share that info, because we really don't know the actual number of these places because ADA and HUD rules protect them from any municipality, county or state govt from forcing them to register.
As far as Rick Scott goes, his wife's company is making a killing on the pee pee tests these operators utilize to 'ensure sober living' HA! What a joke. I can't wait to kick Rick Scott to the curb, he's another rich 1%er that is raping and plundering the state, and he's a crook - definitely not on our side on this matter, nor on South Florida's side despite us being the most populous region in the state.
Oh, you have something against free enterprise?
ReplyDeleteThere was a poll done in 2011 and 71 percent of Floridians — including 90 percent of Republicans — wanted drug testing. At that time I was a democrat and was among the 70%.
Do a little research. "Scott and his wife had sold all ownership of Solantic before the testing was done. Additionally, tax filings show that they sold it for LESS than its actual worth in order to get rid of it before the testing was started in order to ensure that there was no conflict of interest.
Of course, I doubt you have much interest in facts..
http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/gov-rick-scott-finalizes-deal-to-sell-his-holdings-in-urgent-care-chain/1163630
This property has not been a code problem.It's not illegal for cars to come and go no matter what time of night or day. And quite frankly "make the call" after a drive by in your neighborhood just sucks. And I believe that the sober home was the cause of the shooting. So ,in my opinion ,this Sober home has brought a SHOOTING into my residential ,quiet neighborhood.And I'm mad as hell about it. Because you and me and the rest of the neighbors in our town can't do a damn thing about these crap holes bringing ,well ,CRAP into our neighborhoods.THEY have rights. You and I don't have Jack $hit.And our elected "representatives" in Tallahassee had better start doing something to protect all of US,the little nobodies out here ,for a change.Katie Mcgiveron
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely wrong, the ADA does not preempt local laws that are applied in a uniform fashion. This is a rental and under our ordinance can be required to have a license. It is a code violation to have a rental property in our City without a rental license.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that its a sober home doesn't mean they are exempt from the occupancy rules regarding number of people who live there. It also doesn't mean that they don't have to be inspected like every other rental, etc.
Here is a handy guide from Lake Clark Shores written by a lawyer well versed in this issue: http://www.townoflakeclarkeshores.com/blog/2013/10/22/more-sober-houses
If you don't want to read the whole thing, the important point is:
IV. What regulations can local government impose on “Sober Houses”?
None. That being said, local governments can still apply occupancy limitations such as dwelling unit size limitations/number of unrelated people limitations and local landlord permit requirements, provided that these regulations are in place already and apply to all residences/rentals across the board, regardless of the status of the occupants.
V. Can we limit turnover of occupancy in residential zoning districts? Yes and No.
a. If your local government had a regulation on the books prior to June 1, 2011, you can continue to enforce it to limit the turnover of occupancy, provided it is applied equally to all, regardless of the status of the occupants.
Please note that the city of L.W. did and does have a short term rental law and had it prior to 6/1/11 so it is still valid and enforceable.
Thank you to the many who provided information on what is on the books that we CAN use. We don't have one in my immediate few blocks, but a few years back when we had all those break-ins I think we did have someone selling drugs at the end of the street. A very small off street and from around 10pm to 2am you would see a parade of cars pull up singly, no one go inside to visit any one, park for 10-15 minutes with the car lights on. So you could not see anything behind that. I suspected drug dealing on a small scale. I called frequently and told the cops about it. What I used as a reason: the recent break-ins, and worried about numerous cars casing the neighborhood. The last cops were great. The car was still pulled into a drive. They got two cars and just waited there at the end of the street for maybe 30 minutes. Never saw anymore business again. Sometimes just a show of strength by law enforcement can do a great deal. No arrest but stopped the problem.
ReplyDelete