La Mesans' gripes with group homes

La Mesa vice mayor Bill Baber on October 2 will vote in favor of a League of California Cities resolution "to preserve therapeutic environments for group homes and avoid impacts of concentration of alcohol and drug-abuse recovery and treatment facilities in residential neighborhoods."

The resolution on the agenda of the league's annual conference in San Jose calls for the governor, legislature, and other stakeholders to address issues that include the "overconcentration" of facilities in residential neighborhoods.

La Mesans at the September 22 city-council meeting said impacts on Wellesley Street include a group-home resident trying to enter a home.

State law allows licensed facilities housing up to six people in residential zones, said city attorney Glenn Sabine. Furthermore, state and federal law prohibit the city from defining what constitutes a family. This precludes the city from regulating residences used as sober-living facilities. However, the city can regulate issues such as disruptive behavior and the illegal use of garages.

Residents spoke about facilities operated by Hanbleceya Treatment Center, which treats people for "serious mental illness,” including schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder, according to its website.

The center has been in La Mesa since 1979, said Kerry Paulson, Hanbleceya Treatment Network CEO/owner, in a September 25 interview. The center is a tenant in a building on the 5200 block of Wellesley. A portion of Wellesley splits into two one-way streets, and Paulson said Hanbleceya has two licensed facilities located in four-bedroom houses: one is on east Wellesley, the other on west Wellesley.

Hanbleceya also has seven houses "scattered through La Mesa" that are outpatient facilities. Paulson said federal privacy regulations prevented him from giving locations. "These are people who are trying to turn their lives around."

Clients come to the center for activities including twice-weekly individual therapy. In addition, clients must work at least ten hours a week. "Many local merchants hire" clients.

At the council meeting, resident Sherry Washington said she lost her sense of security because people peek in her front window and someone tried to open her front door.

Myron Lang said neighbors bought signs that caution "Children at Play," a purchase partly motivated by group homes. Lang named conditions treated by Hanbleceya and referred to drugged people. "We don't know their background. They’re usually walking around the street like zombies."

Lang said the solution was prohibiting people from leaving the facility unless they are supervised. Moreover, he said garages were converted into living spaces so more than six people could live in a residence.

Paulson said the law requires 24-hour supervision at licensed facilities. However, the license doesn't allow Hanbleceya to "lock the door and keep people inside."

Garages in licensed facilities contain staff desks, phones, and couches. "There are no residents in any garage."

Paulson said a meeting organized by the city last July led Hanbleceya to establish a complaint hotline. Community advisory meetings will be scheduled regularly; the first is in October.

A resident told the council, "They want us to monitor" activity, rather than provide supervision. Mercy Graef called Hanbleceya clients "confrontational." A barking dog "sets them off," and they curse at canines.

The council plans to send letters urging state legislators to support the league resolution. Assistant city manager Yvonne Garrett provided a copy of a September 16 letter from mayor Mark Arapostathis to assemblywoman Shirley Weber (D-79th District). It highlighted statements in the resolution such as amending the law to include a "distancing requirement of a 300-foot separation for alcohol drug abuse recovery facilities."

Garrett said in a September 28 email that the letter followed the council's September 8 direction for Baber to support the resolution.

She said residents expressed concerns about three homes.

Paulson hadn’t seen the resolution but said obtaining a faculty license was a stringent process. "We are going to follow the law, treat patients [and] want to hear community concerns. We [want] to be good neighbors."