Rehab center files complaint

The drug and alcohol rehabilitation center Pacific Shores Recovery claims Newport Beach discriminates against recovering drug addicts and alcoholics.

The center has filed a federal fair housing complaint against the city, one of its attorneys said Monday. The complaint could be the first step in filing a federal lawsuit.

“You can’t legislate and prohibit a group of people from living within the city,” said Steven Polin, a Washington D.C.-based attorney for Pacific Shores Recovery, which houses recovering drug addicts and alcoholics at two addresses in Newport Beach. “There’s no difference between saying, ‘There will be no sober living houses allowed in the city’ and ‘We’re not going to allow any racial minorities to live in the city.’”

The complaint, filed with the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development last week, alleges a city-imposed moratorium on new rehabilitation homes in the city, which began in April 2007, is discriminatory.

Pacific Shores is one of two local rehabilitation homes the city sued in November for allegedly violating the moratorium. The suit claims Pacific Shores opened new residential facilities for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts while the moratorium was in effect. The rehabilitation home houses its clients at 492 and 494 Orange Ave., Newport Beach. Residents share cooking, shopping and cleaning duties, much like a family or a group of roommates, Polin said. Recovering addicts have the same legal rights as disabled people in the eyes of the law under the federal Fair Housing Act, he said.

Pacific Shores claims its two facilities in Newport Beach don’t offer treatment, counseling, or therapy, just a place for sober addicts to live. The homes aren’t licensed by the state, so the law treats them the same as it would a group of roommates living together in a private home, Polin said.

Newport’s moratorium hasn’t discriminated against Pacific Shores or any other rehabilitation home because the city offered people with federally protected disabilities, like addiction, the opportunity to apply for reasonable accommodation through its zoning codes, said Jim Markman, an attorney who represents Newport Beach on the rehabilitation home issue. Pacific Shores never applied, he said.

“They just opened up and didn’t try to go through the reasonable accommodation process,” Markman said. “This whole complaint is flawed. They just came roaring in.”

The city had not been formally served with the federal complaint Monday, Markman said.

Polin said Pacific Shores also will consider whether to file a federal lawsuit against Newport Beach.

“Pacific Shores is considering all its options, including filing a federal lawsuit for violating the Fair Housing Act,” Polin said.

Markman said he fully expected Pacific Shores and other rehabilitation homes to take further legal action against the city claiming discrimination, but said he was confident Newport Beach’s rules on rehabilitation homes would stand up under scrutiny.

“We’re not surprised,” he said. “If we can’t regulate the homes to the extent we’re seeking, then there’s nothing we can do.”

The Newport Beach City Council imposed the moratorium last year while it considered passing stricter ordinances to curb the spread of rehabilitation homes. An outspoken group of local activists claim the homes cause problems with crime, noise and second-hand cigarette smoke in their neighborhoods. The City Council unanimously approved a new ordinance last month that would require most homes get use permits to remain open and subject the homes to a public hearing process to gain approval. The new rules will go into effect Feb. 20.

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at [email protected].