Gripes lead to inquiry

Newport Beach faces at least five federal complaints claiming it discriminates against recovering drug addicts who seek treatment in the city. The United States Justice Department could slap Newport Beach with a federal discrimination lawsuit if an investigation into the matter finds wrongdoing on the city’s part, adding to Newport’s mounting legal woes over its regulation of sober-living homes.

“We don’t believe the city is violating fair housing laws, but not everyone agrees with us, so that’s a significant issue,” said Newport Beach City Atty. David Hunt.

Newport Beach has turned over “scads and scads” of documents to federal investigators in the matter and expects to hear back later this year on the results of the investigation, Hunt said.

The complaints allege a city ordinance passed last year in response to residents’ concerns about the growing number of drug and alcohol treatment centers in their neighborhoods violates federal fair housing laws. The ordinance requires most of the homes to go through a public hearing process and obtain use permits to remain open. The Fair Housing Act bans discriminatory housing practices against people with physical and mental disabilities, including recovering drug addicts.

“The complaints reflect the exact nature of why the city’s ordinance violates the Fair Housing Act and how the city’s enforcement of the ordinance violates that act — in particular, the city’s reliance on unsubstantiated complaints by the citizens as a basis of denying their applications,” said Steve Polin, a Washington D.C.-based attorney who represents several of the homes that have filed complaints.

Rehabilitation homes that have filed federal complaints against the city with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development include Pacific Shores Recovery, one of two local rehabilitation homes Newport Beach sued in 2007 for allegedly violating a moratorium on new homes in the city and Newport Coast Recovery, which in January became the first drug and alcohol recovery home in Newport Beach denied a use permit per the city’s rehabilitation home ordinance.

Both Pacific Shores and Newport Coast have also filed federal lawsuits against Newport Beach alleging discrimination.

Newport’s largest rehabilitation home operator, Sober Living by the Sea, also filed a federal fair housing complaint against Newport Beach in March 2008. It was unclear Thursday whether the complaint had been withdrawn.

Other rehabilitation home operators who have filed federal fair housing complaints include:

 The Kramer Center, which runs a 12-bed unlicensed recovery home on 28th Street;

 Yellowstone Recovery, which was denied four use permits earlier this year to maintain its rehabilitation homes in West Santa Ana Heights;

 Sober-living home operator Paul Murdoch;

  Oxford House, a national umbrella group for drug and alcohol recovery homes.