Care Home Census Puts San Pedro Near Average

The Los Angeles Planning Department, conducting a first-ever citywide survey of community care facilities, has issued a report that belies contentions that the community of San Pedro has more than its share of group homes--with one notable exception.

The report, commissioned by the City Council to help sort out a debate over whether the port community has an over-concentration of so-called special needs housing, looked at licensed care facilities only, including drug and alcohol residential treatment facilities and group homes for juveniles, the mentally ill, the developmentally disabled or the elderly.

Researchers concluded that the 15th City Council District, which includes San Pedro, contains 67 such facilities, or 5% of the 1,334 licensed community care homes citywide. Eight other council districts had fewer such facilities, but six others had higher numbers, most notably the 12th District in the northwest San Fernando Valley, with 215, or 16% of the citywide total.

However, the 15th District does have the highest number of state-licensed alcohol and drug rehabilitation facilities, the report said. And San Pedro is home to 10 of the 13 such facilities in the district, according to a top deputy for Councilman Rudy Svorinich Jr., who seeks to stem new or expanded facilities in the community.

Barry Glickman, Svorinich’s chief deputy, said Thursday that the councilman will probably seek a moratorium on drug and alcohol treatment centers in the community, at least until the city can explore some of the report’s recommendations, including seeking changes in the state’s regulation and placement of these facilities.

“Our interest is not to hurt these facilities--there are some excellent ones--but when you start to concentrate them, are you doing what is best for the community? We need to take a serious look at those numbers,� Glickman said.

Glickman said the council’s Housing and Community Redevelopment Committee, which Svorinich heads, will meet with the council’s Planning and Land Use Committee to review the report in detail, probably after Thanksgiving.

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A leader of the community group pushing for controls on special needs housing, Community Advocates for Responsible Environmental Safety, said she was encouraged that the report provided some information about the numbers of treatment homes.

“At least it’s a start,� said Janet Gunter, adding that the report did little to shed light on the situation in San Pedro because it focused on districtwide numbers and did not include small recovery homes that do not require licensing.

Among its recommendations, the report suggested that the city pursue vigorous enforcement of its recently tightened nuisance abatement ordinance.