Malibu residents have formed a committee in an attempt to put a cap on the number of rehabilitation centers per neighborhood.
By Lindsay Kuhn/Special to The Malibu Times
Some residents say they are concerned that Malibu has become a breeding ground for drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers, and they plan to do something about it. Recently, with the facilitation of the city, they have formed a committee called Residential Integrity and Peace (RIP) to address the issue.
RIP members say their goal is to initiate legislation that would limit the number of rehab centers per neighborhood. In some neighborhoods, up to 25 percent of the homes serve as rehab centers.
“We’re not against one rehab in a neighborhood,” said Mayor Ken Kearsley, who has been working with RIP. “We’re against multiple rehabs in one neighborhood.”
RIP Chair Beth Dorn’s Trancas Highland neighborhood includes a number of rehab homes. And the amount of them will increase as a rehab center has just purchased the home next to hers.
“Everyone wants them (the patients) to get better, but it’s really not fair to homeowners,” Dorn said.
A mother of three children, Dorn said she is concerned about the effect of the rehab centers on the neighborhood.
“I’ve spoken to people who’ve seen needles and condoms and drug dealing on the street by the other rehabs,” she said.
A director of one of the local rehab centers refuted this claim. “We’ve had absolutely no problems with our neighbors,” he said. “It’s behind gates. No one even knows we’re here.”
The idea behind placing rehab centers in residential neighborhoods is so the patients can be integrated back into society, further helping the rehabilitation process. However, many say the original purpose is defeated when there is a high number of rehabilitation centers in a neighborhood.
“It literally wears out the neighborhood,” Kearsley said. “Our neighborhoods weren’t designed for this.”
However, local governments have no authority over the rehab centers if there are less than six beds per facility. But some say the rehab centers are getting around that rule buy purchasing clusters of homes in neighborhoods. City Attorney Christi Hogin said the city has been trying to get the legislature to put limits on the amount of rehab center homes per neighborhood for years, but it has not been successful.
One problem is that the state is a major supporter of these programs. Rehab centers have proliferated in Malibu in the past three years, since the state passed Proposition 36 in 2000, saving it a large sum of money per year by allowing first and second-time drug offenders to opt for rehabilitation over jail.
Also, the state likes the programs because they have a good success rate. Lisa Fisher, a public information officer for the California Department of Alcohol and Drugs, said it was important to consider the number of lives that have been touched by the facilities.
“The other way to look at this is that there are numbers of people who are getting great treatment and are improving,” Fisher said.
However, those living in neighborhoods with a growing number of rehab centers say the amount of homes needs to be limited regardless of the success rate. Although the city of Malibu has been unsuccessful in getting a cap put on the amount allowed per neighborhood, RIP will try to persuade the state by speaking with representatives in the Legislature.
It also plans to talk to the League of California Cities to garner support.