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Monday, February 05, 2007

Sober Houses

Please click onto the comments for the story.

5 Comments:

Blogger Bob said...

Reprinted from Tribune

By 2005, residents of Anoka had begun to complain about the 10 or 11 single-family homes that had been converted to sober houses. They worried that business would snowball to the point of changing the know-your-neighbor character of certain neighborhoods.
"There was a feeling this was growing out of control," said City Manager Tim Cruikshank. The City Council organized a task force to study chemical-dependency treatment ventures in Anoka.

Coupled with other rental property concerns, the sober house issue prompted the city to adopt a rental licensing ordinance that enforces a maximum of four unrelated adults to a house. Six months after the ordinance went into effect, at least six high-occupancy sober houses closed. "The ordinance allows us to put our feet in the houses, to check them out," Cruikshank said.

In St. Paul, partly in response to concerns raised by Betty Moran and others in the West 7th neighborhood, the city's planning staff is studying what to do about sober houses.

Wendy Lane, a city of St. Paul zoning expert, said the city would at the very least like to have a contact person for each house.

Any St. Paul house rented to more than four unrelated adults needs a certificate of occupancy, which can be issued only after fire safety codes are met. The city's Fire Department is inspecting known sober houses as fast as it can, said Fire Marshal Steve Zacard. So far, inspectors have found instances of too many people sleeping in attics and inadequate exits for tenants living in basements. "It concerns me deeply," he said. "We've been trying to get to them."

State Sen. Michael Jungbauer said any bill he introduces would not "hurt people who are doing it for altruistic reasons." But with so many operators "flying under the radar," he wants to introduce some kind of reform or reinforcement of tenant rights.

The way things stand now, sober house landlords can generate three or more times the amount of rent per month than traditional landlords, said Jungbauer, who has business experience in real estate. "If we can't do anything, then I should own my own," he said.

TONY KENNEDY

2:45 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Any St. Paul house rented to more than four unrelated adults needs a certificate of occupancy, which can be issued only after fire safety codes are met."

So, if you only have three in a home, yuo don't need to follow the same rules as the others? Is that fair?

8:06 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Bob, roll down to your sterotyping post. You've been called out and your supporters are going Condeferate on ya.

8:17 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow, the master plan has reared it's ugly denomicratic head. Bob doesn't support or necessarily go along with what other supporters of his blog do and vice versa. It takes a very liberal piece of work to jump at any individualness that every one is entitled to. Let the gov do your thinkin for ya, eh boys?

Now let's make the cops as civilians when one knows that they should be put at a higher standard of moral, ethical and self-control than "we" are put under.

Oh, Bob the controversy which you have put forth is absolutley amazing. This is the most fun I've had since, well, last night!

What better to do then watch the whiney, wishy-washy people pleasin, leftist gorillas beat their drum.

Yee Haw, this fun stuff.

8:44 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Maybe you've been asleep for the last six years but its been the conservatives that have worked at squashing out any individualism or marching out of lockstep.

9:39 PM  

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