Tighter zoning controls to prevent the proliferation of unregulated “sober living homes” in Phoenix will come before the Ahwatukee Foothills Village Planning Committee Monday as it inches its way toward a final vote by City Council next month.
Although a recommendation by the committee for the controls’ approval is not required for their adoption, the panel last month gave indications the new rules will easily get an OK when it meets at 6 p.m. March 26 at Pecos Community Center.
City Councilman Sal DiCiccio pressed for the stricter regulations after Arcadia residents raised alarms about numerous sober living homes popping up in residential neighborhoods. These homes are not like licensed clinics and often provide no services or medical staff to their residents, he found.
In addition to zoning regulations aimed at keeping these homes from infesting a neighborhood, the Council also will be considering tough licensing requirements that would make it more difficult for these operations to simply provide a bed and collect thousands of dollars from government agencies and private insurers for so-called treatment of addictions.
The new rules were fashioned in part with the help of nonprofits, such as the Salvation Army, that run legitimate treatment programs for addicts, DiCiccio said.
The full extent of the problems that sober living homes are creating for homeowners was laid out at last month’s planning committee by Linda Colino, an Arcadia resident who helped organize residents to push for more city controls because the State Legislature only now is taking some small steps toward regulating the facilities.
“We’re not trying to stop sober living homes from going their good work, but there are some bad operators,” said Colino, part of an organization called Take Action Phoenix.
She found 13 houses within a quarter-mile of her neighborhood – and only four were licensed by the state.
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