Mary Kate Leming, editor of The Coastal Star in year-ending "wish" about sober homes

Mary Kate Leming has this year-ending "Editor's Note" for her readers and one wish is for a solution to a particularly bad problem we also have in Lake Worth: Sober homes. Here is an excerpt from her "wish for residents in 2016":

     The recovery industry’s meteoric rise over the past few years has taken almost everyone by surprise. We’ve all known family, friends or neighbors who have battled with addiction and are thankful for professionals who provided assistance for this disease. What we didn’t expect was for the sober home industry to explode when laws and a lack of regulations provided access to easy money for those who prey on the needs of others. [emphasis added]
     Now we have the fourth-largest industry in Palm Beach County giving little back to the communities where they see the most potential profit. It’s become an issue for government agencies (aka our tax dollars) to deal with. Unless recovery industry leaders step up their efforts to police their own (it’s not like they don’t have the money), it’s going to take a long time for the wheels of government to provide a solution that benefits both the communities and the growing need for addiction treatment.

Lake Worth City Manager Mike Bornstein, on the same topic, writes this in his year ending message and is titled, "Moving Forward":

     I regularly receive questions and comments about issues ranging from potholes to sober houses. In most cases our issues are not unique to Lake Worth as cities across the state are dealing with the same ones. We share our ideas through organizations such as the League of Cities and from working with them it becomes evident that all cities must consider two important factors. The first is the limits set by external entities such as the federal or state laws, and, secondly, the resources necessary to pay for a solution if one is possible.
     For example, in dealing with sober homes, cities are prohibited by the Federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Fair Housing Act from enacting laws that treat them differently than any other type of rental. Thinking with common sense may lead you to believe that these are businesses operating in residential areas with potential negative impacts when operated by unscrupulous owners. You may ask, “Why doesn’t the City require a special license or prohibit them altogether?” The simple answer is that as long as Congress considers a person with an addiction as protected under law, the City is greatly limited in our response. Instead, we must work with our state and federal leaders to figure out how to creatively and legally mitigate the impacts while also working for changes to the laws.

Many elected leaders are working hard to solve this problem and we can all hope a solution, even a step in the right direction, will be found in 2016.