Locals:

Newport residents, including a man who claimed he had to hold a recovering addict who broke into his home at bay with a hammer until police arrived, filled Newport Beach City Council chambers Tuesday night complaining of continuing problems with drug and alcohol rehabilitation homes in their neighborhoods.

Numerous residents asked the council to keep up its commitment to enforcing city codes and defending a new ordinance aimed at curbing the spread of rehabilitation homes in Newport. The appeal came on the heels of a recent, tentative U.S. District Court ruling that upheld most of the city’s new rehabilitation home ordinance, but claims state law blocks the city from regulating licensed homes that house six or fewer recovering drug addicts and alcoholics.

“You as a city council need to make a resolution for this situation,” said Newport resident Ronald Herrick. “I can’t emphasize enough that you need to focus on this issue before the situation gets any more out of control.”

Herrick claimed a resident from a local drug and alcohol recovery home broke into his Balboa Peninsula house about a week ago in the early hours of the morning while he and his wife were sleeping. Herrick found the man hiding in his bathroom and held him there with a hammer for about five minutes while he waited for police to arrive, he said. The arresting officer later told Herrick the man was a client from a drug and alcohol recovery home in the area, he said.

Balboa Peninsula resident Barbara Roy, who said she has lived in the area for more than two decades, claimed a rehabilitation home resident recently yelled profanities at her as she walked down the street near her home.

“I have never felt concern for my personal safety until now,” Roy said.

In a tentative ruling issued last week, U.S. District Court Judge James Selna decreed the city cannot force drug and alcohol recovery homes that are already licensed by the state to apply for permits if they house six or fewer people, but allowed the bulk of a new city ordinance aimed at curbing the spread of the drug and alcohol recovery homes in the city to stand.