Frances Langford’s Rio Peacocks Saved!
http://treasurecoast.com/rio-peacocks-saved/
Category Archives: my martin county
Sober Homes, Insurance Companies, Fraud? In Florida? No way!
Sober Homes, Insurance Companies, Fraud? In Florida? No way!
So I got a heads up yesterday that some of these treatment places are offering free rent and plane ticket down here to Florida.
Some how the treatment center pays for the sober home after over billing the insurance. This has got to be looked into.
Why?
Because of greedy scammers many people who would need for this to paid for will loose it. This will become the headline. Then everyone will loose.
I found this online:
Should sober living houses be covered by insurance? INTERVIEW with Opportunities Halfway House
I can’t comment on this place because I do not know them but they sound nice.
Brittany Ringersen was the person speaking in the interview.
“Some of the principles and qualities a family should look for are structure and supervision. You want to find a house where the residents are required to go to meetings, have a sponsor, obtain employment and do chores. It is also very important that the residents be drug tested at least on a weekly basis to insure the sobriety of everyone living in the house.
The number one sign of a poorly managed halfway house is one where residents are allowed to use drugs and alcohol while living there. You would think that this is a rare occurrence, but it happens much more often than you would think.
Another big warning sign is if the house is co-ed, with men and women living under the same roof. It can be very uncomfortable for a newly sober woman to have a male roommate, especially if she has a history of sexual or physical abuse, which many women in recovery do.”
She said
“I would love to see all sober living and halfway houses registered with some form of a regulation agency either on a county or state level. It requires the facilities to have certain policy and procedures from intakes to discharges. This prevents facilities from practices that are unethical, such as unauthorized billing of insurance to having a “flop house” which allows residents to use mind altering substances without consequences. Having these types of changes will force all of the facilities to uphold a level of ethics which is missing in a lot of sober livings.
Unfortunately, it appears that a lot of insurance companies are getting involved with halfway houses without their approval or knowledge. What has been happening lately is that many Intensive Outpatient programs have been offering free rent as an incentive for clients to come to their program. What they then do is find halfway houses willing to house their clients and be paid directly by the treatment center. The insurance companies are being billed for “case management” services and have no idea that the money is actually going to pay the client’s rent.
The definition of a halfway is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halfway_house
A halfway house is a place that allows people with physical, mental, and emotional disabilities to learn the social and other skills necessary to integrate or re-integrate into society.
The environment features varying degrees of privacy, social work, medical, psychiatric, and other similar services as well as residence halls for the patients. Two main types are found in the U.S.
In the first type, upon admission, a patient is classified as to the type of disability, ability to re-integrate into society, and expected time frame for doing so. They may be placed into an open bay same-sex dormitory similar to that found in military basic training with fifty or a hundred similar residents in a gymnasium-type setting all going through the same thing at the same time. As the patient is able to increase his skill level and decrease his dependency on support services, the dorm members become fewer to the point where, at the final stage before being able to get their own apartment, the patient may have only one or two roommates.
The other type is reversed, housing new patients in individual rooms providing one-to-one services and programming, and as they become more independent, the dorms become bigger so that by the time the patient leaves, they are living in the 50-to-100 man dorm described above.
This is not a sober home. All a sober home is is a place where people live and remain sober. Right?
You can go here with this website Sober Living Florida.
Cool if you get an insurance company to pay your rent at a place with meals , free internet, a swimming pool, and a gym membership. It’
There are some good places btw that provide a good service. These good places will be hurt unless we do something about the bad places.
The people who really need these group homes like the developmentally disabled and the mentally ill will be hurt because I fear that everyone will thrown in the same basket.
It’s Pill Mill’s all over again.
Here is a good piece from the Sun Sentinel.
Cary Glickstein:Some sober homes owners scamming public
State and federal lawmakers, Department of Justice and HUD officials, and mental health agencies must act to curb widespread abuses associated with sober homes and the addiction treatment industry that fights any intrusion into its unregulated, unaccountable and hugely profitable turf.
Sober homes — group homes for persons in recovery from drug/alcohol abuse — are intended as a last step in the continuum of substance abuse/addiction treatment. Sadly for many, they are far from the last step.
The good actors, regrettably, appear outnumbered by unscrupulous opportunists and profiteers preying on the misfortunes of vulnerable people seeking wellness in sober homes that operate with impunity from even the most basic regulations — no training, licensing, registration, background checks, inspection or accountability requirements of any kind. Desperate parents (many out of state) are duped by slick websites with palm trees and sunsets offering hope, but producing little.
“Exploiting our well-intentioned FHA and ADA laws drafted to protect those with disabilities and handicaps from housing discrimination, many sober house operators game the system, fighting any attempt to license or regulate what is by any definition a business. This, despite claims of convicted drug dealers and sex offenders operating sober homes, claims of sexual barter/assault (for rent) within sober homes, insurance and Medicaid fraud, patient brokering, unsafe and hostile living conditions (within and around sober homes), and grossly expensive and often unsuccessful therapies.xploiting our well-intentioned FHA and ADA laws drafted to protect those with disabilities and handicaps from housing discrimination, many sober house operators game the system, fighting any attempt to license or regulate what is by any definition a business. This, despite claims of convicted drug dealers and sex offenders operating sober homes, claims of sexual barter/assault (for rent) within sober homes, insurance and Medicaid fraud, patient brokering, unsafe and hostile living conditions (within and around sober homes), and grossly expensive and often unsuccessful therapies.”
Here is a list of the hundreds of drug rehabs in Florida. These are NOT sober homes. They are treatment centers.
http://www.rehabs.com/local/florida/
Negron deals deathly blow to sober homes bill
State Sen. Joe Negron likely has killed a sober homes bill pushed by Port St. Lucie to give the state some control over the controversial facilities.
The bill’s last committee hurdle was a stop this week in the Senate Appropriations Committee chaired by Negron, R-Stuart, but he did not take up the bill because sponsor Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, did not want to accept an amendment that would gut most of its language, Clemens said. Committees are not scheduled to meet anymore this session.
Although the House has passed its version of the bill, Clemens said there’s little chance the Senate will hear the legislation to allow the Department of Children and Families to license and inspect sober homes for recovering drug and alcohol addicts and do background screenings on operators.
The amendment would have replaced those regulations with a task force to study the welfare and safety of residents.
Residential neighborhoods in South Florida have become a hub for those facilities, which have started to creep into the Treasure Coast, in particular Port St. Lucie. The city has been involved in litigation with two sober home operators.
Some “sober homes” bill insurance and some do not. I believe and you can correct me if they bill directly they are subject to inspections of billing.
If any of these places are billing Medicare then they are subject to someone looking at the billing practices.
To think otherwise is utterly ridiculous.
Langford Landings, Meritage Homes. Who are these people?
Here is the link btw to the final plan by the Martin County .
Thank you Marjorie for finding this.
Click to access 8D1-2014-12-16%20Langford%20Landing%20Final%20Site%20Plan.pdf
When I googled Meritage Home and our TC Palm I found nothing. There was virtually nothing written about these people who bought the land that Frances Langford’s estate was.
Here is a list of 166 complaints from Consumer Affairs
Here is just a few but you can click on the link and read them all. Did anyone check out these builders before they built?
I’m so sorry Frances Langford!
If Frances Langford was alive I’m pretty sure she would have been a River Warrior. She loved Martin County and loved this corner of the universe I live in.
Everything around here has her name on it. She had died a few years before I got here but she was everywhere here on the ancient sand dunes where we all share sacred ground.
This is a special place.
Frances Langford and her first husband Jon Hall In 1948, donated , 20 acres of land near her estate in Jensen Beach, Florida, to the Martin County Board of County Commissioners, which named it Langford Hall Park. Located at 2369 N.E. Dixie Highway, just south of the Stuart Welcome Arch, it is known today simply as Langford Park and is one of the county’s major parks.
After leaving Hollywood life, she kept up her pastimes of boating and sport fishing. As a nightclub singer in 1955, she married Outboard Marine Corporation President Ralph Evinrude. They lived on her estate in Jensen Beach and built a Polynesian-themed restaurant and marina on the Indian River they named The Frances Langford Outrigger Resort, where Langford frequently performed. Locals and celebrities flocked to the site. Evinrude died in 1986. In 1994, she married Harold C. Stuart, who had served as Assistant Secretary for Civil Affairs of the United States Air Force (1949-51) under President Harry S. Truman. They spent the summers in Canada on Georgian Island and journeyed to the Island from their home in Florida aboard their 110-foot yacht “The Chanticleer”, which was a popular tourist attraction when moored at the Outrigger Resort. Stuart survived Langford (who had no children) and died in 2007 at the age of 94.
Langford was a supportive member of the Jensen Beach community and constantly donated money to the community. She was a great philanthropist and her generosity to the Florida Oceanographic Society located on Hutchinson Island, Stuart, Florida was well known. The site provides education and research of the ocean, reefs and environment in the Florida area.
She died at her Jensen Beach home at age 92 from congestive heart failure. According to her wishes, she was cremated and the ashes strewn off the coast of Florida near her residence. In 2006, the Frances Langford Heart Center, made possible by a bequest from her estate, opened at Martin Memorial Hospital in Stuart, Florida.”
Area prior to demolition and devistation
Work cleared to begin on Langford Landing development in Rio
“Once owned by philanthropist and old-Hollywood actress Frances Langford, the St. Lucie River waterfront property is zoned low-density residential with a maximum 1.4 units per acre. Other than six existing houses, the land is vacant, according to Martin County Growth Management.
Commissioner Sarah Heard on Tuesday said the project has the potential to be a “beautiful property we can all be proud of,” but urged the developers to keep the environment in mind.
“(Ten) acres is all we’re guaranteed?” Heard asked about a designated preserve area. “It would be a crime to get rid of some of these old-growth oaks and so forth.”
The crime has been committed. The developer’s have no respect for Frances, the people of Martin County, the heritage, or the history.
They are rapists of the land.
Destruction at Langford’s Landing Photo: Rebecca Fatzinger
Every tree pulled out photo by Julie Williams
Total destruction photo by Julie Williams
Here are all the amazing things she did for Martin County.
Frances Langford’s legacy: In the mood for loving Martin County
Martin Health System: $6.3 million, including $5 million for the Frances Langford Heart Center
Elliott Museum: $3 million in 2007 plus $500,000 in 2008 toward construction of new museum, which includes Frances Langford Cafe
Martin County: Land for Langford Park in Jensen Beach and the Rio Skate Park, plus beautification on portions of State Road 708, value $300,000
Martin County Council on Aging: $2.5 million for Frances Langford Theatre & Audtiorium at the Charles and Rae Kane Senior Center
Florida Oceanographic Society: Beach home that sold for $600,000 in 1989, plus $50,000 for visitors center and annual contributions totaling more than $1 million
Florida Institute of Technology: (now site of Indian RiverSide Park) Two marine science laboratory buildings and a marine research dock and pier valued $1 million.
Martin County Historical Society: $2 million plus costumes and other memorabilia
(see article for the rest)
I feel like this gorgeous piece of land should have been made into something wonderful in memory of the woman who made our little corner of the universe her home and did so much for us.
This is not just an insult. It’s a slap in the face of Frances and all of us that live here.
Nothing was honored or handled with care.
If our county cannot be respectful to one of it’s greatest benefactors I hardly doubt it can be respectful to the rest of us.
Water Farming, Alico, Martin County
Legislative money could flow into Treasure Coast water farms
“The Caulkins Citrus Co. water farm, a 413-acre reservoir between Palm City and Indiantown, stores excess water from the C-44 Canal, where it evaporates and percolates into the ground instead of reaching the St. Lucie River. The former citrus grove has kept nearly 6 billion gallons of water out of the C-44 Canal.
he 2015 Legislature approved $30 million for dispersed water management projects, which included the water farm projects; but Scott took the money out of the state budget.
Scott said he thought the money should come from the South Florida Water Management District. But Draper said it didn’t help that money for the proposed 35,000-acre Alico Inc. water farm in Hendry County “was rolled in” with the Caulkins and Evans projects.
As approved by the water district board in December 2014, the Alico project was designed to keep 30 billion gallons of water out of the Caloosahatchee River estuary on Florida’s west coast at a cost of $12 million a year for 10 years.
Since starting operations in May, the Evans water farm on the C-24 Canal has met its contract goal of keeping nearly 1.2 billion gallons of water from entering the St. Lucie River. Its contract runs until May 2017; so Evans doesn’t have to get money from the upcoming legislative session.
Instead, Ronald “Ron” L. Edwards, president and CEO of Evans Properties, wants money for two water farms it has proposed: on the C-23 Canal just east of St. Lucie County’s Bluefield Preserve park and on the C-25 Canal straddling the Indian River-Okeechobee county line, where the company’s long-term goal is to build a 3,000-acre reservoir and a stormwater treatment area that would sell water to send north to the St. Johns River.”
ohhhhhh
I see now. We didn’t get our reservoir because someone is planning on building their own and then selling water.
How stupid of me.
and doesn’t this water eventually end up back in the lagoon as it percolates down now with all the chemicals that are in the soil making the situation worse?
Just sayin.
What will Martin County Become?
I moved here to Martin County six years ago. I literally was running away from Palm Beach County. The whole place was closing in on me. The people, the traffic, the constant building way, way out to the Everglades, the traffic.
I had driven up here for years for work. I even came up after one of the Hurricanes. I think it was Jeanne. I needed air conditioning. Everyone was so nice.
I drove up Dixie in Rio and always stopped to take a photo of Mrs Peters sign. I took video of the river and the sailboats.
I always felt special driving under the Jensen Arch.
I loved it because it never changed. It always felt like old Florida to me. A place where the people who lived here knew how to keep it special.
It must be filled with special people and I was right about that!
Then I moved here. People had kayaks and paddle boards and it reminded me of Boulder, Colorado where people drive around with Kayaks on the roof of their cars. A funky downtown with so much potential. An entire area with so much potential to be funky and fun.
Downtown Stuart with all it fun shops was a great place to tell people to meet me for lunch.
It never changed.
I could live here. I can breath here. People smile here. They are polite. They care about where they live. No one was driving up your rear end and yelling and giving you the finger.
In the last few years we have been polluted, multiple trains are coming and we have 200 sober homes here. People are being court ordered here for treatment. People that can be kicked out any time of their sober home to the streets. People are driving up my rear end and giving the finger when I pull over to let them go.
And don’t even start with the NIMBY stuff. I’ll save that for another day. There is a big difference between being a NIMBY and not wanted polluted gross water and junkies. I think that both go together.
A month ago there was someone shooting up heroin at the corner store. Some guy was upset because he had to pay for his gas with his weed money.
Many motels have been sold and now they are treatment centers. Let’s not talk about this or deal with it. Let’s wait until it’s really bad.
These treatment center are not for our neighbors but for people up north. Come to Florida. You can be a junkie here. Live in Florida. You get nothing. If you are over 65 and need alcohol or drug treatment through Medicare there is one choice and that choice will probably put you on a psychiatric unit with a general population and not with the program you need.
The people in charge say there is nothing that can be done. That these homes ( and let me remind you that all a sober home is is a place where people live sober. Anything else is a treatment center and must be governed under Florida Law.) We are learning now that many of these places are just scams run by drug addicts or other scam artists to make money.
A scam in Florida can you believe it?
These places are not Switzerland. If there is something illegal going on there has to be a way to investigate. I think people are not thinking hard enough and they are being snowed.
The water I moved here for is unswimable. So many people I know have gotten sick. I cannot take my grandson or my dog there.
There seems to be no answer or any one taking responsibility for what Martin County is becoming. No one.
The junkies keep coming , the dirty water keeps coming and the trains are on the way.
Last year both our Representatives Gayle Harrell and Mary Lynn Magar refused to lift a finger to do the one thing that would have helped us. Millions of dollars are spent that will never make a difference. Someone is getting rich while we are still getting polluted. US.
We have been taxed in Martin County 75 million dollars to water storage so we don’t have to have discharges. Well that didn’t work. We begged for a reservoir with the water going south as mother nature put it in the first place. That didn’t happen.
In the election in 2006 ” The Palm Beach Post, which criticized Harrell for “too obediently” voting the party line and for having “so little clout in Tallahassee that she can’t protect her well-intentioned legislation from harmful amendments.”Ultimately, however, the conservative nature of the district proved too much for Ramos to overcome, and Harrell won re-election over him, scoring 54% of the vote to her opponent’s 46%
In 2008, The Palm Beach Post endorsed Fetterman over Harrell, praising the incumbent for closing a loophole that allowed sexual predators to avoid prosecution, and once again criticizing Harrell for her record in the legislature, where “she wasn’t known for bucking the GOP leadership.”However, Harrell was able to dispatch Fetterman with relative ease, regaining her seat and earning 56% of the vote to Fetterman’s 44%.”
We know she doesn’t buck the leadership. That’s why she refused to help her own constituents. She is also been conferring with people up north about the voluntary legislation regarding sober homes encouraging people to open them up down here as long as they do a voluntary sign up.
She should be asking herself: Why is everyone sending their junkies to Martin County?
She is no friend of ours and certainly not a friend of the water. She just had some kind of event. Invited all the Republicans , left everyone else out so she has no interest in being inclusive and getting anything done. It’s like all the people that have worked so hard for the water don’t exist.
She should be fighting for us instead of cow-towing to the leadership in Tallahassee.
On Mary Lynn Magars Wikapedia page there is nothing. She said the same thing last year. She couldn’t so anything. I can’t find anything she has actually done. I must be wrong. How can this be true? Someone please tell me she has done something.
I say this because of our ( The train is the train and we have to wait for that one) pollution we are loosing our tourist base. We certainly have more people but those people are going to requires services we just don’t have for our people that live here.
In the last election we picked our clean water candidates. They were bipartisan and they reflected the people who understand the water and have the smarts and the know all to get this stuff done. They certainly would not have destroyed the water of South Florida, continued to allow Salt Water Intrusion, discharges and everything else because of their party and because of their ego.
Last year we painted and sent solidarity fish to multiple representatives and senators. The only one that answered was Thad Altman. Not Gayle, or MaryLynn Magar or even the Democrats answered us.
Yesterday, I read an article about eviscerating our ability to get Florida Government Records. No sunshine. Another bill was filed to override us saying we don’t want fracking. Who’s for fracking raise your hands! Come on higher!
In the coming year we have some big decisions to make. I hope that one of them is not voting party lines but voting for keeping our Martin County a great place to live.
We don’t need vindictiveness, stupid games, egos, grandstanding, and more of the same BS. We need to work together or else we’re gonna have a dead river and people shooting up heroin in all our corner stores. We need people that not only understand the issues but understand how to work together with people and are willing to to stand up to get things done.
Gathering Weekly Photo
May 4th,2014 We had a funeral for the St Lucie River and the Indian River Lagoon which had been devastated by discharges from Lake Okeechobee. Both turned green with poisonous green toxic algae. Our lives would never be the same again.
As a way to protest we held this funeral at Phipps Park which the park next to the the “Gates of Hell” where the water out and runs into the river and the lagoon.
Here is a video that Brad Langel shot with his drone. There is a great shot of the St Lucie Locks that will be opened when Lake Okeechobee is too high. That’s when we get polluted with Lake water that destroys mostly because the fresh water hits the lagoon, changes the salinity of the water and kills everything including the oysters that my friends very lovingly place through out.
Here are a few other photos of the event.
Here is new’s cast.
My Martin County: Ground Floor Farm
My Martin County: Ground Floor Farm
This is where I went on my Black Friday.
Ground Floor Farm is our local urban farm. In 2014 they raised over 20,000 with a kick starter campaign with 144 backers.
Share a hug!
This is the Martin County I love. People with wonderful ideas interact with the community. Together the community is nurtured. We become a better place. Together.
From Slow Food Gold & Treasure Coast
“Co-founders Micah Hartman, Michael Meier, and Jackie Vitale together conceived Ground Floor Farm as a space that combines food, art, and civic engagement in ways that benefit and help strengthen our community. Ground Floor Farm is part of a hometown renaissance, in which individuals focus their energy and creativity on the places they come from and through which the importance of a vibrant community center is reclaimed and revitalized.
We accomplish this by growing and producing delicious food on a small urban farm and giving others the tools and resources to do so themselves; by showing that productive agriculture can take place in small spaces in urban centers and that it can be economically sustainable; by providing the space and resources for others to use their talents, skills, and interests to engage their community; and by curating an exciting and diverse program of cultural and social events that engage the hearts and minds of this community.”
This is the Martin County we want!
Next week they will have an event called 
Make.Share.Do. is a weekend skill-sharing conference exploring homesteading, self-reliance and interdependence.
Highlights
Saturday, December 5th WORKSHOPS
20 one-hour workshops, taught by experts from around the state on topics including:
rain water harvesting, meditation, power tools, sprouts, herbalism, bike maintenance, seed saving, gardening, soap making, and more.
There will be a Seed Swap all day
5-9 Night Market
Dinner from Fruits and Roots, Crust Vegan Pizza Kitchen and other local food producers.
Sunday, Dec 6 all day
Hands on intensives. Explore fermentation, herbalism, vegetable productions, beekeeping and brewing beer.
For more info on the summit, the farm and an upcoming schedule
http://www.groundfloorfarm.com/makesharedo/
to connect on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/groundfloorfarm
In the Hood: Wanted sex offender in Martin County John Michael Janaskas turns himself in, Someone please let the Sunshine In.
So according the news John Michael Janaskas, who was court ordered to drug rehab in Jensen beach, was dropped off at a Walmart because the rehab center “didn’t want the heat.” The news reported that “Martin County sex offender” was taken to another rehab in Miramar. We still have lots of questions.
I want to be very clear. I am very much for good treatment. Our citizens do not have the option of a special treatment houses. They have nothing. Our mentally ill end up in jail. Or they get 15 minute at New Horizens to get their prescription refilled. I worked on a great CD unit in Ft Lauderdale. In order to work there I had to be credentialed. A few months ago I had an issue with urinating for my urine test. I had to pay 250 dollars for a blood test and I was happy to do so. But I (The RN with no record is guilty and has no to proven innocent). These guys are just innocent and through some loop hole they do not have to obey the same laws and rules as the rest of us.
Why won’t our legislators do something about this?
How is it that people are getting court ordered to Jensen Beach from up north?
How does a person who is a sex offender get court ordered to Jensen Beach to a licensed drug rehab around the corner from me and then get dropped off at Walmart? Do these people have the good sense to do business and keep the the rest of us safe?
The news reported they could not say which recovery center because it was protected by HIPAA. People are protected by HIPPA not buildings. Rehabs, sober houses etc are a matter of public record.
The place that dropped him off is Pathway’s Recovery Center in Jensen Beach.
Here is their website.
So yesterday I heard a bunch of things. I was told these places cannot be regulated. This place can and is regulated under the laws of the State of Florida which means it follows the rest of the rules that we all do. They will be investigated but we still have not answered the question as to why are people being ordered for treatment in Florida a state with such an incredible huge drug problem. This is like the issue of the Lost dogs of South Carolina. Why are we bringing more dogs to a state that has a huge amount of homeless dogs that are being euthanized.
So someone needs to find out about this. How does this work?
The treatment center dropped him off at Walmart and not the Martin County Sheriff’s office because “They didn’t want the heat.”
So in fact, the people that put us in danger was the treatment center and the person in question found his way to another treatment center because he knew he was in deep doodoo.
Apparently, when he got kicked out of the treatment center he reached out to the outreach coordinator at the facility in Jensen Beach who got him here in the first place. This person got him into the center in Miramar. Where was the person when the BOLO went out? Did this person call the police explain the situation?
So the treatment center has a lot “splainin to do.
And they will. They have lots of people to answer to.
The good news is this issue has put this issue front and center. I wrote last week about motels being bought up and turned into treatment centers, sober homes, half ways houses for the people up north is really coming to light. The fact Martin County has allow these place to sprout up everywhere in our neighbors it seems they have a lot of “splanin to do.
Instead of repeating the same thing over and over again there are things that can be looked at. There is a difference between a “sober home” and a licensed facility.
The sheriff himself confused calling this a sober home when it’s not. It’s a licensed drug rehab. So someone please educate him as to the difference.
“A lot of people have reached out to me this week which is great. What I heard is this: “They are popping up everywhere and people are worried. One person said she is constantly calling the police and no one is doing anything. I heard the problem is Epic is Rio. That MCSO has no interest. There is drug abuse and distribution and break ins.”
Which is why I laugh when some guy want’s to build some massive yuppie land in Rio. Who is going to buy these places between the drug issues and the train horns and the filthy dirty stinky water? A lot of people. Want to know why? All this will get sweep under the rug. It won’t get dealt with.
We know this happens because we see it. I see it in FIsherman’s Haven. I see it at the corner store when someone asks me for money to buy pot. Everyday it get scarier over there.
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2014-03-08/news/fl-sober-homes-state-crackdown-20140308_1_sober-houses-sober-homes-group-homes
“For years, the proliferation of sober houses has been a source of frustration for city leaders and neighbors.
Both groups groused about the lack of regulation in place to govern sober houses, which are group homes that shelter people recovering from drug and alcohol addictions.
“It’s the wild west,” Delray Beach Mayor Gary Glickstein said.
Sober houses dot the landscape in several Broward and Palm Beach county communities, including in Delray Beach, Boca Raton, Deerfield Beach and Pompano Beach.
But now two proposals aim to bring order to what many say is a chaotic situation.
A proposed state law under consideration in the annual Florida legislative session would impose regulations on the facilities.
“Unfortunately, there are houses popping up everywhere which are “addiction counseling” houses. Some on my very street. When I asked what I can do about it, the city basically said “Follow your instinct. We can’t refuse because it is an ADA compliance.”
The measure would require registration with the state, including disclosure of the number of people served at each site, and implement background checks. Operators would have to show proof of fire, safety and health inspections and compliance with local zoning ordinances. And felons convicted of violent crimes wouldn’t be allowed as owners and operators.
Neighbors seethe over unsupervised residents congregating in and around the homes and city officials complain they’re powerless to do anything, even in the face of problems, because people recovering from addictions are protected under federal fair housing and disability laws. Clemens, Glickstein and Hager said government officials don’t know who’s staffing the homes, what kind of people are residing in them, or even basic numbers about how many exist and how many residents are there.
“Unregulated sober homes are popping up in the middle of neighborhoods and in many cases essentially changing the character of those neighborhoods,” Clemens said. Hager said the sober homes “have been plaguing our cities and our residents.”
Glickstein and state Rep. Gwyndolen “Gwyn” Clarke-Reed, D-Deerfield Beach, said the number of sober homes increased during the real estate meltdown, during which foreclosed houses were bought cheaply and turned into sober homes.
“Something definitely has to be done,” Clarke-Reed said.
Not so fast, said James Green, a West Palm Beach lawyer who has repeatedly and successfully challenged cities’ attempts to restrict sober homes in South Florida. He said people in recovery are a protected class under the Fair Housing Act and Americans with Disabilities Act.
“It’s a problem that’s motivated by hostile neighbor prejudice against people in recovery,” Green said, urging people to substitute blacks or Jews for people in recovery. “If there was neighborhood opposition to people who belong to other protected groups, we’d be saying that they were racist or anti-Semitic.”
Efforts to impose restrictions amount to politicians pandering to “the voices of intolerance,” he said. “It’s more easy to demonize than understand.”
He said the model of having people “who are committed to sobriety” living and working together is a successful way to help people stay away from drugs and alcohol.”
This is great but it’s not what is happening.
The issue I have with Mr Green is this. I understand what he is saying. but we have no idea who the people are that are running these places. Are they even licensed mental health counselors. We are all for recovery. What we are not for is becoming alcoholic/drug center of the universe. There is no regulation. I’m a nurse and in order to work with people who are protected under the American’s Disabilities Act I have to be credentialed. Finger prints. urine tests, FBI background checks, physicals, tb tests, cpr and more. It cost’s me a fortune to stay credentialed. If a person is protected under the American’s Disabilities Act then the people taking care of them need to be credentialed. It’s not intolerance. It’s keeping the people safe.
This is Florida. Land of the Scam. If there is a loophole it will be found and only until something tragic happens will something maybe be done.
Again and again the people of Martin County are not protected. We are the Cassidaga of drug addiction. Send us your heroin addicts. We don’t have enough of our own.
So these are the big ticket items that we need to know about.
- Who is running these sober homes? Are they credentialed under the State of Florida?
- Why are people getting court ordered from Florida? How does that work?
- Is there a limit to how many facilities can go into a county.
- Why are these places even here and our citizens do not have any services? (Who does that)
- Are the police going to clean up Rio and other areas where drug abuse, drug distribution is rampant
This morning there is nothing on the new about John Michael Janaskas. Why is that?
WordPress Weekly Photo Challange: “Ornate” The Solidarity FIsh Project
In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Ornate.”
Here is a video of Janeen talking about the project.
“The Solidarity Fish Project
This simple wooden fish is splashed in vivid colors on one side, but when flipped over it reveals in stark contrast skeletal remains on a black background. Viewed individually each is unique and beautiful. When they are exhibited together by the thousand(s) they are a monumental temporary public art installation that connects participants and passers-by.
The Solidarity Fish, painted by kids and ordinary people are an icon of the clean water movement in Florida. They have been from the Everglades to Washington, D.C., from the steps of the Capitol Building in Tallahassee to the cover of most major Florida newspapers and in the New York Times.Raising awareness and inspiring stewardship with a striking participatory art project created by ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Working together to change the status quo.
Solidarity,
Janeen Mason
Author/Illustrator/Speaker
National Award Winning Children’s Books”
cyndi lenz 