By Matt Snyders at October 9, 2008 10:00 AM

A social services group that was looking to convert a soon-to-be-abandoned St. Paul building into a “sober house” has ditched its plans after nearby residents balked at the idea. (Obligatory side note: sober houses, you might infer, are supportive homes for recovering alcoholics and addicts. No booze or smack allowed.)

A nonprofit developer behind a large sober-housing proposal in St. Paul said Tuesday it’s scrapping its plans because of intense opposition from neighbors. Opponents created an anonymous Web site that featured photos of drug syringes and people passed out in yards.

St. Paul, Minn. — The property in question is across the street from the Minnesota State Fair. RS Eden was considering turning an old nursing home into up to 100 apartments for people with chemical-dependency issues.

Even the proposal’s biggest critics said they’re shocked by their victory.

“In doing a ton of research and meeting with our community representatives, it just seemed like it was something that was going to move forward in some way, regardless,” said resident Lori Hill.

Despite Hill’s initial surprise, she said she’s pleased that the developer, Minneapolis-based RS Eden, has backed off.

RS Eden maintains it was only in the exploratory stages of purchasing the site. The current owner, Sholom Home, is moving to another part of the city. But over the past month, word spread like wildfire about RS Eden’s intentions to build.

Neighbors swiftly put up a Yahoo listserv, fliers and a Website warning others of the proposal. The opposition solidified well before a public meeting scheduled for October 23.

RS Eden President Dan Cain, described the reaction by some residents as “caustic” and “bullying.” The controversy even caused rifts between neighbors.

“Then there’s also the fact that, if we were to locate in this neighborhood, would I have to worry about these people who have spread false propaganda and Web-based lies to go around and harass the tenants?” said Cain. “You know, I’m just not willing to put those things at risk.”

Several neighbors have told Minnesota Public Radio News that they know the resident who created the anonymous Web site at stopeden.com. The resident they identified did not respond to several requests for interviews.

Now at stopeden.com, gone are the black-and-white pictures of homeless drunks. They’ve been replaced with bucolic pictures of Como Park and a message thanking RS Eden. The site also suggests making a donation to support RS Eden programs.

Cecile Bedor is the city’s planning and economic development director. Bedor said the opposition killed the debate before it could even start.

“I think it’s really unfortunate that the process couldn’t be seen all the way through,” Bedor said. “RS Eden didn’t come to us with a proposal for us to necessarily approve, they hadn’t even had a purchase agreement yet. They were exploring this opportunity to do a great project in the Como neighborhood. And I think there were just a few people who used some unfortunate tactics to make sure the process didn’t happen as I think it should have.”

Officials with the Como Community Council say they’ll go forward with a series of public meetings this month about the issue. But instead of weighing the RS Eden proposal, they’ll discuss supportive housing in general, and another neighborhood challenge: What to do with an empty hulking building in need of a new tenant.

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman won’t sign a recently approved ordinance that regulates sober houses.

The ordinance, approved unanimously by the City Council this month, still takes effect. Coleman just doesn’t approve and knows that a veto wouldn’t stand a chance.

He said in a July 18 letter to council members that he agrees that “a clear definition of sober houses is necessary to ensure both that reasonable accommodations are made for those living with addiction and that the integrity of our neighborhoods is protected.”

He also agrees with parking requirements and a condition that operators must provide information to the city.

His problem is with a disputed provision that requires a 330-foot distance between sober houses — although the city could allow houses to be closer together on a case-by-case basis.

Opponents say that’s discriminatory toward sober-house residents, a federally protected class because chemically dependent people are considered disabled.

The Planning Commission had recommended the city adopt an ordinance excluding the distance mandate, and city attorneys noted that the requirement could be illegal.

“As always, I am concerned about putting the city at risk of lengthy and costly litigation,” Coleman wrote.

Regulating the homes for recovering addicts has been a complex issue, with the city trying to square the concerns of neighbors with the rights and safety of sober-house residents.

City Council President Kathy Lantry declined to comment.

CHRIS HAVENS

By CHRIS HAVENS, Star Tribune

Last update: July 10, 2008 – 9:18 AM

After months of study and public testimony, the St. Paul City Council adopted an ordinance Wednesday defining and regulating sober houses.

Council members approved it unanimously, ensuring it would take effect before a yearlong moratorium on new sober houses expires this fall.

A lawsuit is likely, opponents said after the vote.

Regulating the homes for recovering addicts has been a complex issue, with the city trying to square the concerns of neighbors with the rights and safety of sober-house residents.

“We’ve reached a reasonable balance,” said Council Member Russ Stark, who talked about the logic behind the ordinance before calling for the vote.

Sober houses are a valuable part of the community, he said. But, Stark added, neighbors raised valid concerns that the city had no clear definition or guidelines up to this point. It’s fair, he said, to place some regulations on the homes to maintain a neighborhood’s character.

A city ordinance allows no more than four unrelated people to live together in one dwelling. That would put most sober houses in violation of the law because many house five or more people. But because recovering addicts are a protected class and live as a family unit without services, operators say, they should be granted special accommodations to live in residential neighborhoods.

Existing sober houses will be grandfathered in.

A controversial provision requiring a 330-foot distance between sober houses remained in the ordinance. The city, however, could allow houses to be closer together on a case-by-case basis.

Opponents say that’s discriminatory toward sober-house residents, a federally protected class because chemically dependent people are considered disabled.

Sober people should be able to pick where they want to live, said John Curtiss, president of the Minnesota Association of Sober Homes and the Retreat recovery center.

“Our goal was to see where they [the council] went,” Curtiss said. “What seems to be reasonable is in violation of federal law.”

Several U.S. cities have lost lawsuits when trying to regulate sober houses.

Stark said the 330-foot distance requirement would allow for one new sober house per block, and the city has thousands of blocks.

The ordinance also says that:

• No more than 10 residents may live in a home in certain zoning districts.

• There should be at least 1.5 parking spaces per four residents.

• Operators must provide certain information to the city.

In other action Wednesday, the council unanimously approved the preliminary design plans — alignment, number of stations, right-of-way — for the Central Corridor light-rail line. The resolution noted 17 “outstanding issues,” such as dealing with the major loss of on-street parking along University Avenue, ensuring bicycle parking near stations and building additional stations.

Council members also approved an increase in taxi fares.

Chris Havens • 651-298-1542

By CHRIS HAVENS, Star Tribune

Last update: June 13, 2008 – 10:20 PM

A proposed St. Paul ordinance creating a zoning category and regulations for sober houses ran into vociferous opposition during a public hearing of the Planning Commission on Friday.

In a June 12 letter sent to the Planning Commission, David Lillehaug, an attorney representing the Minnesota Association of Sober Homes, said the ordinance, which goes to the City Council next week, was an invitation to a challenge in district court.

Regulating sober houses has become a controversial issue, with the city trying to balance the concerns of neighbors with the rights and safety of sober home residents.

The issue came to a head last fall when neighbors complained about the concentration of sober houses in some areas and the number of people living in them. The City Council in October approved a one-year moratorium on building permits and certification for the homes.

Any sober-house regulations would have to comply with the federal Fair Housing Act, because chemically dependent people are considered disabled and constitute a protected class.

Currently, the homes don’t fall under a specific housing category in St. Paul and aren’t subject to zoning regulations.

The proposed ordinance would establish these requirements:

• An operators’ questionnaire specifying the number of occupants and other building information

• A distance of 330 feet between sober houses, and 660 feet from homes with more than 7 people

• An additional 800 square feet in lot size for every person over six people at a residence

• 1.5 parking spaces for every four people

Lillehaug suggested that the matter be tabled and that neighbors and sober home operators be brought together to create a definition of what a sober house is and skip the regulations.

Terry Troy, of St. Paul, spoke as a concerned taxpayer and questioned whether the city should take on an issue that could cost a lot of money in court fees. Several cities around the country have been sued — and lost — trying to control sober houses.

The Planning Commission will make its recommendation to the council June 27.

The City Council’s first reading of the proposed ordinance will be Wednesday. A public hearing is scheduled for July 2.

Chris Havens • 651-298-1542

A sober house is a home for persons in recovery from chemical dependency. Residents share common areas, such as kitchen and bathrooms. They do not receive any government payments and provide no supportive services to residents. They may set rules and conditions for residents, and generally can require residents who break the rules to leave immediately, without legal eviction processes.

Some 60-70 people filled the room to overflowing and later arrivals stood around the perimeter.  About half of the community members in attendance are residents of sober houses in those communities. Newly-elected city council member Russ Stark and about fifteen city staffers and Planning Commission members attended. 
 
Barbara Wencl, a member of the Planning Commission and chair of its Neighborhood Planning Committee for the Planning Commission, moderated the discussion.  Panelists representing three Saint Paul communities were:  Ryan Kapaun from District 5, the Payne Phalen neighborhood, Diane Gerth from the West 7th Neighborhood and Phil Gerlach from District 13, which includes Merriam Park, served as panelists, along with John Curtiss, the President of the MN Association of Sober Homes, and Dave Mott a current resident of a sober home.  

City Planner Luis Pereira gave a quick overview on the ordinance process to this point beginning with a request from the city council in 2005 requesting a study.  On February 13, a draft proposal was presented to the Zoning Committee.  Several neighborhood meetings had been held leading up to the draft and several public hearings are now on the calendar with plans for a final ordinance proposal to go to the Planning Commission this spring.      
 
A key legal issue is that people with a known chemical dependency are included as disabled in the Federal Fair Housing Act (FFHA) and thus receive all of its protections. Due to this inclusion, more unrelated individuals can legally reside in a sober house than would otherwise be permitted in a single family dwelling under the current zoning ordinances. 
 
Leana Shaff, an Inspector from the Saint Paul Fire Department spoke at length about inspections of sober homes in response to safety concerns. 

“All are subject to fire, building and property maintenance inspections and I have shut down three of them,” she said. “When I find out about a new one I am there within twenty-four hours.” 
 
Parking, as any resident of Saint Paul will tell you, is always an issue.  The draft ordinance could limit the number of parking spaces required for sober homes. A similar issue is the concentration of the sober houses in a neighborhood, with the Planning Department proposing a “moderate” distance between them.
 
After statements by panel members, the meeting moved into observations, questions and issues from the audience.  As time and the evening wore on, the best-laid plans of the Planning Commission and the city staff gave way to the onslaught of, up until then, tightly capped emotions.  Several residents declared they would be moving due to this disruption of their community.  
 
John Curtiss said that Sober House residents were entitled to their constitutionally-protected privacy like any other citizen. 

One resident asked if the ordinance would be reviewed by the city attorney’s office to see if it was in violation of Supreme Court cases on similar situations.  The representative from the city attorney’s office avoided the question, stating that this was a meeting for residents and not for discussing legal issues.  Sober house residents countered that they were also community residents.      
 
All were in agreement that sober houses were better than college houses, however.  Even among Merriam Park residents, who were the most vociferous in objections to sober houses, there was division. 

”I am happy to have sober houses on my block” said resident Michelle Voychek, going on to describe neighborhood barbecues and other outreach among the members of her block.
 
Further information on other public hearings on this issue can be found by contacting Luis Pereira at luis.pereira@ci.saintpaul.mn.us.

Carrie Wasley splits her time between living in St. Paul while working for the state of Minnesota and residing in Kanabec County with her two dogs Ping and Pong, who give her sage advice on writing.

By Alex Friedrich

afriedrich@pioneerpress.com

Article Last Updated: 03/04/2008 12:23:18 AM CST

Problems with poorly run sober houses have riled people in a number of St. Paul neighborhoods, and Monday the city discussed its first shot at regulating the facilities.

At a Summit-University community center, planning officials heard residents sound off on proposed zoning ordinance amendments designed to handle the houses. In the meantime, the city maintains a de facto moratorium on them.

The changes are supposed to balance the needs of sober-house inhabitants — recovering alcoholics and addicts who are getting their lives back together — and the communities in which they live.

“We want to make sure the structures are safe, integrate them into neighborhoods and make sure we address the larger impacts on the neighborhoods,” city planner Luis Pereira said.

St. Paul has almost three dozen registered sober houses, he said, but residents said many others operate “under the radar.”

Many houses comprise a handful of recovering substance abusers who decide to live together and support each other. Others are larger operations run by landlords for a profit.

To live in a house, alcoholics must not drink and must be financially self-supporting, among other things.

The houses have been around for decades, and many neighborhood residents never know they’re there.

But some people have complained they’re seeing more and more in their communities — sometimes more than one on a block. And because federal laws consider the residents disabled, more of them can live in a house than is normally allowed.
Critics said that creates a number of problems, especially when the sober houses are poorly run.

At the forum, neighbors painted a picture of absent landlords, poor upkeep, lots of noise and huge parking crunches.

“This is public safety stuff that the city has to get a handle on,” said 55-year-old Marshall Avenue resident Gary Carlson.

Among other things, neighbors said they want the city to keep better tabs on sober houses, better screen those who run them, reduce the density of the houses and resolve parking problems.

But sober-house supporters said they shouldn’t be singled out and that they draw fewer police visits than college “party houses.”

Most residents in sober houses are productive and law-abiding, supporters said, and need the facilities to make a transition to mainstream life.

“I owe my life to sober housing,” said David Mott, a 23-year-old sober-house resident who said he’ll earn a degree in accounting next year.

John Curtiss, of the Minnesota Association of Sober Homes, cautioned against suggestions to identify all the facilities in the city or to decide where a law-abiding recovering alcoholic or addict is allowed to live.

“It’s a scary thing to hear that kind of thing in a community,” he said.

The proposed zoning amendments, which stemmed from a city study of sober housing, would still permit the facilities in any area that allows residential use. And they would grandfather in existing sober houses that are legal.

Among other things, the amendments call for:

– 1 1/2 off-street parking spaces per dwelling unit.

– A parking plan for each sober house.

– Information from each sober-house operator, which would include the number of residents, bedrooms and bathrooms.

– A “modest” distance requirement between new sober houses with seven or more residents.

– A minimum lot size for those with six or more residents.

The city will hold at least two more public hearings on the matter, and Pereira said officials hope to bring a draft ordinance to the Planning Commission this spring.

Neighbors turn to St. Paul City Council to provide more oversight on sober homes

By Matt Snyders

Published on October 08, 2007 at 3:17pm

The boulevard of new dreams: Recovering alcoholics take a symbolic stroll down Grand Avenue, the street that historically offers them community and support as they pursue lives of sobriety.

Laura Yuen
Pioneer Press

May 17, 2007

When recovering alcoholics move into one of Chris Edrington’s St. Paul sober houses, he tells them not to find God, but to find coffee.

Go to Grand Avenue, Edrington instructs.

On St. Paul’s trendiest boulevard, many of the folks sipping or serving lattes have wrestled with addictions. And for the past couple of decades, they have fueled the area’s reputation as Recovery Row. “When you get out, no matter where you live, you’ve got to go where other alcoholics hang out,” said Edrington, who owns eight sober houses in St. Paul, all of them within walking distance of Grand Avenue. “There’s nothing more powerful.”

On Wednesday, Edrington and several dozen other recovering addicts ambled along the avenue’s sidewalks for their first-ever “Grand Sobriety Stroll.” They hugged, laughed and filled up on free coffee along the way. Recovery Works!, a group that aims to raise awareness of recovery, coordinated the event. The walk was a metaphor for Jo Campe, a recovering alcoholic and pastor of downtown St. Paul’s so-called “Recovery Church” at Central Park United Methodist.

“There were lots of years where we didn’t walk in public through many parts of our lives,” Campe said. “To be out in public like this is claiming back our humanity and sense of purpose.”

Many in the recovery community fondly refer to their adopted state as “The Land of 10,000 Treatment Centers.” During the past 20 years, Grand Avenue has become an unofficial hub for addicts from all over the world who are trying to stay clean.

Some of them gravitated to the neighborhood after spending time at Hazelden’s Fellowship Club on nearby West Seventh Street, one of the nation’s first halfway houses.

“The easiest place to find employment in bookstores and coffee shops was the Grand Avenue neighborhood,” said Andrew Wainwright, executive director of Addiction Intervention Resources in St. Paul. “Like all human beings, you’re going to say, ‘Where’s the nice neighborhood? Where are the outdoor cafes?’ We’re attracted to beautiful places with nice people.”

More recently, St. Paul has also seen the rise of sober houses. These arrangements represent the last tier of care – groups of recovering addicts who share privately operated rental homes. Unlike halfway houses, sober houses are not regulated by the city, and there are no clinicians on site.

“My model is single-family homes in nice neighborhoods so you feel like you’re back in a normal society and no longer in a facility,” said Edrington, a recovering heroin addict who owns St. Paul Sober Living facilities.

But some neighbors have complained about the proliferation of sober houses, which offer an estimated 400 beds in the city. And even within the recovery community, not everyone is happy with the model. Sober houses don’t account for relapses, which are often part of the recovery process, said Ashley Stanley, a spokeswoman for St. Paul-based Addiction Recovery Professionals who used to help run sober houses. While she supports the concept, Stanley also advocates more structured support and protocol if someone has a lapse in judgment.

“What’s happening is someone relapses, and the locks are changed on them, and they have to pack their bags and leave at that moment,” she said.

Edrington, though, says the model has evolved over the past few years. He and other sober-house landlords are forming a new statewide group, the Minnesota Association of Sober Homes. The group will demand that its members promote sobriety and make sure the living spaces they provide are clean and safe, he said. On Wednesday, Courtney Lubrant and friend Matthew Frost walked side by side from Snelling Avenue to Grotto Street. Lubrant, 21, has been sober for just over a year. The Crystal native said she never met as many sober people in the community until she settled into St. Paul after treatment. At the Caribou Coffee on Grand and Grotto, she draws inspiration from an older generation of recovering alcoholics who remind her to take it one day at a time.

Wainwright, of Addiction Intervention Resources, calls another coffeehouse, the Starbucks at Grand Avenue and Victoria Street, the “ground zero” of recovery.

“All you would need to do was walk in and have your life put together in a half-hour,” he said. “I’ve gotten phone messages there. It’s the place.”

Laura Yuen can be reached at lyuen@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5498.

Copyright 2007 St. Paul Pioneer Press