Mission Viejo leading the charge to regulate sober living homes

We need to be very careful how we regulate these homes. Don’t worry about insurance fraud it very rarely happens. One bad event gives a false reputation to those things. I think as long as people living there adhere to noise regulations (that’s important). The rest leave them alone! And on a completely different subject…… please keep allowing all kinds of residential housing everywhere! I want to see tall apartments right next to very wealthy house neighborhoods in order to lower rent a lot! Enough of not in my back yard people. Much higher supply will result in much lower rent one day and we need to build cheap apartments, condos and houses everywhere for the working poor! Thank you.

I sure hope no one on this task force is on the city payroll. Money would be better spent hiring more First Responders to deal with this scourge to our community.
Keep thinking it one of these homes won't open next to you. Interest rates are at an all time high. Homeowners, especially baby boomers, won't be able to sell. Renting out your home to one of these business is like hitting the lottery. Most sober living homes pull in over 45K a month.
Thank our legislators for the ease in which people can move to California and establish residency making them eligible for Covered California insurance benefits.
Hence the name "Rehab Riviera"

I used to work for a SUD recovery agency in Costa Mesa. Besides noise, neighbors complained about all the smoking, which was done outdoors and trash. The staff worked to keep things in compliance with city regulations.

This is from the city website on home business.

Can I run a business out of my home?
Yes. A home-based business, commonly referred to as a "Home Occupation" business, is permitted when conducted as an incidental and accessory use to the residence. The resident typically conducts business by mail, phone, fax or computer. The City's zoning regulations outline several operating requirements for a home business,
including: only the residents of the home may operate the business; the business shall be conducted only within the interior of the home (not in the garage); and the business shall not create any noise, traffic, or other impacts which disturb the surrounding neighbors. For more information, please contact the Community Development Department at 949-470-3053.

So the city has rules for businesses run out of your home. So lets take a deeper look at his paragraph.
1. Only the resident of the home can conduct business there. (I am certain the home owners are not sharing their home with sober living patients)
2. The business shall not create any noise or traffic. (Unless it's the fire department or sheriffs rolling up your street at 2AM twice a week to try to either give someone Narcan or break up a fight over toilet paper)
3. Business shall be conducted within the interior of the home. ( Unless you conducting a group counseling session in the garage or backyard to accommodate the 10 people who all have to have a cigarette while they learn to control their addiction issues')

Finally someone is paying attention to this problem that began in the late 1990's. No regulations and the Affordable Care Act have led to a terrible crisis for the victims and patients at these unregulated homes. Prior to that legislation, patients enrolled in long term care facilities that were regulated and worked with their own insurance company policies, and drained the personal assets of the families for treatment. (No debt forgiveness for this population). I've seen first-hand how these operator's work. Complete disregard for the treatment and care program and it's all usually all about the money, insurance benefits, Med-i-Cal reimbursements for urine testing, and worse. Another reason our rents are skyrocketing and the homeless count increases. Great job elected officials and NIMBY's. Ignoring the problem didn't help the situation. Addiction is a disease and needs to addressed with care, compassion and regulations, or this will continue with greedy operators. Science may one day accomplish a cure for the disease of addiction, but it hasn't done so yet, against the Cartels and Big Pharma, Obamacare didn't help the treatment improve, and the AA community is paying attention to the final results on a daily basis, and it isn't pretty. I highly recommend the decision makers attend an AA 12 step meeting, tour these facilities and treatment centers, research the costs involved, and look at the long-term care options or this homeless problem will continue. Watch "DOPESICK" on Hulu too, so you can visualize how bad the problem really is in our communities, and what Purdue Pharma did to our next generation. We need more housing too, or this problem continues to get worse because it doesn't look like this population is moving out of State anytime soon for a better tax & mortgage rate. The shady operators ought to be put in jail for violating the Civil Rights Act.

I highly recommend watching John Swabs Body Brokers, the insurance scam’s hasn’t stopped. Unfortunately in California, the scheme is The Residential rehab/Detox Program is in a home, lic by the St Department of HHS. insurance is covering this, kids are being shipped in out of state. Signed up for Marketplace ins ACA aka Obamacare. They step down to the sober living home the rehab also owns or contracts with, doing u/a’s to waive rents. (Illegal fraud) financial incentives being paid to addict to stay. Once ins is maxed, they rinse and repeat by relapsing them until policy is burnt. Then kicking them to the curb, lying to their parents telling them they AMA’d failed the program. When the whole time they set them up for failure. This whole industry is a scam. All for profit, filled with scammers who are trying to game the system. Predatory behavior is rampant. Ruining neighborhoods, I’ve seen spreadsheets and bank accounts of tons of brokers and fraud and turned over to FBI, OCDA Spitzer office and it’s sat. No funds to investigate. It’s time to sweep this industry up. I’ve been a part of multiple investigations and there’s massive more that need attention. Times up! I’m going to media next, with all my privileged information. To many lives, they matter, seems like because they’re “addicts” funding doesn’t get allocated to them to investigate.