Residential Recovery: How Cities Experience It
California refuses to track unlicensed Residential Recovery, pretending that vulnerable addicts living in such homes are living independently, while industry contributes to this charade by referring to the properties where addicts are active in recovery as Sober Living Homes. In addition, while the State has a mandate from the Legislature to ensure that sufficient Residential Recovery is provided, the Legislature has never codified:
• whether all of the licenses could be granted to one county,
• whether they should be based on local need, or
• whether California intended to provide recovery services to addicts coming to California for treatment.
State licensing is thus like a spigot that has been turned on with no intention other than to continue to pour out licenses. In 2017, Orange County had 45% of the state's licensed 6-and-under Residential Recovery houses, with only 8% of the population.
The result: San Juan Capistrano has the seventh largest number of licensed facilities--including Treatment Centers--in the state following Los Angeles, Costa Mesa, San Diego, Malibu, San Francisco, and San Jose. Based on the size of the population of the city, San Juan Capistrano has the third highest density of all licenses, following Malibu and Costa Mesa. San Juan Capistrano has the fifth highest density of licensed 6-and-under houses, following Malibu, Laguna Beach, Costa Mesa and Dana Point.
The lifeblood of a Treatment Center business is the pipeline of recovery: Detox-->Recovery Residence-->Sober Living Home. Treatment Centers want to "own" their own licensed Detox or Detoxes, and then move clients into Recovery Residences. If treatment is maintained in the Treatment Center, Recovery Residences, where the tenants' lives are structured by the operator, can claim to be Sober Living Homes and fly beneath the radar of regulation. In Orange County, a single Detox will average approximately 2 weeks of stay for 6 clients. If all of the clients were to remain with the same Treatment Center, the Treatment Center would need to provide for up to between 8 and 12 weeks of housing on another one of their properties, treating a total of 24 to 42 clients between 4 and 7 unlicensed properties--if the operator puts only 6 clients into a home, as they are legally required to do in San Juan Capistrano. Thus, each licensed Detox spawns demand for up to 7 unlicensed homes. In 2017, San Juan Capistrano had 11 licensed detoxes, which suggests demand for Recovery properties is 44 to 77 houses. This statistic ignores additional unlicensed houses in which Treatment Centers do not have a financial interest (separate tenancy contract) or for which they operate a licensed Detox in another city, and additional houses committed to true Sober Living Homes to which Recovery Resident tenants may move when they are done with recovery.
To put this many properties into desirable residential neighborhoods, in a town with as small a population as that of San Juan Capistrano, means that homes dedicated to Residential Recovery are being placed very close together. At this point, there are multiple streets with properties next door to each other or with one house between them. We have streets with clusters of three houses.
• whether all of the licenses could be granted to one county,
• whether they should be based on local need, or
• whether California intended to provide recovery services to addicts coming to California for treatment.
State licensing is thus like a spigot that has been turned on with no intention other than to continue to pour out licenses. In 2017, Orange County had 45% of the state's licensed 6-and-under Residential Recovery houses, with only 8% of the population.
The result: San Juan Capistrano has the seventh largest number of licensed facilities--including Treatment Centers--in the state following Los Angeles, Costa Mesa, San Diego, Malibu, San Francisco, and San Jose. Based on the size of the population of the city, San Juan Capistrano has the third highest density of all licenses, following Malibu and Costa Mesa. San Juan Capistrano has the fifth highest density of licensed 6-and-under houses, following Malibu, Laguna Beach, Costa Mesa and Dana Point.
The lifeblood of a Treatment Center business is the pipeline of recovery: Detox-->Recovery Residence-->Sober Living Home. Treatment Centers want to "own" their own licensed Detox or Detoxes, and then move clients into Recovery Residences. If treatment is maintained in the Treatment Center, Recovery Residences, where the tenants' lives are structured by the operator, can claim to be Sober Living Homes and fly beneath the radar of regulation. In Orange County, a single Detox will average approximately 2 weeks of stay for 6 clients. If all of the clients were to remain with the same Treatment Center, the Treatment Center would need to provide for up to between 8 and 12 weeks of housing on another one of their properties, treating a total of 24 to 42 clients between 4 and 7 unlicensed properties--if the operator puts only 6 clients into a home, as they are legally required to do in San Juan Capistrano. Thus, each licensed Detox spawns demand for up to 7 unlicensed homes. In 2017, San Juan Capistrano had 11 licensed detoxes, which suggests demand for Recovery properties is 44 to 77 houses. This statistic ignores additional unlicensed houses in which Treatment Centers do not have a financial interest (separate tenancy contract) or for which they operate a licensed Detox in another city, and additional houses committed to true Sober Living Homes to which Recovery Resident tenants may move when they are done with recovery.
To put this many properties into desirable residential neighborhoods, in a town with as small a population as that of San Juan Capistrano, means that homes dedicated to Residential Recovery are being placed very close together. At this point, there are multiple streets with properties next door to each other or with one house between them. We have streets with clusters of three houses.