By Jeff Clemetson | Editor

The residents on and surrounding East and West Wellesley streets in La Mesa like their neighborhood, except for one major complaint –– what they describe as a “takeover” of their city by licensed and unlicensed group homes that treat psychiatric patients and people with drug dependency issues.

Hanbleceya treatment facilities were started in the late 1970s and have operated in La Mesa since 1989. According to the company’s website, it runs “an independence-oriented program where each individual is supported in developing and practicing skills that help them live more independent and fulfilling lives.”

For Wellesley Street residents, it is this orientation of “independence” that they say has caused problems in their neighborhood, which range from littering to harassment.

“My husband cleans up liquor bottles all the time and cigarette butts all over the place,” Wellesley Street resident Joan Smith said.

Other residents complained of being accosted in their yards; dazed Hanbleceya clients walking in the middle of the street; an increase in police visits to the group homes, one ending in a client taken away in a straight jacket; and clients knocking on neighbors’ doors trying to use their phones.

“I don’t care how you cut the mustard, we’re sitting on a time bomb,” resident Jerry Johnson said. “Tomorrow, the next day, next year, we’re going to have a major problem on our hands.”

Hanbleceya CEO Kerry Paulson disagrees. He described the vast majority of his clients as “good people who are struggling with certain issues,” and added that his company tries to address the concerns of the neighbors by providing a hotline number for them to register complaints and by terminating clients who act inappropriately. But, he insisted, round-the-clock supervision isn’t something that is necessary.

“It’s not reasonable that we put handcuffs on the clients, put leashes on them and make sure we’re with them every moment,” he said. “That would be like going to San Diego State and telling San Diego State to make sure your students living in these houses don’t do stupid things.”

The residents said the comparison of Hanbleceya clients and college students is “apples and oranges.”

“When the people from the College Area voted to have San Diego State in there, they voted to have young adults with ambition and drive in their area,” La Mesa resident Tony O’Boyle said. “What we’ve been forced to have is people with psychotic, mental and drug issues. And we don’t agree to that.”

Despite the complaints, Paulson said “one of the things that the clients need to know to be in the program is that they need to be good neighbors” and those who don’t follow the rules and are a nuisance to the neighborhood are terminated from the program.

The residents countered that Paulson is relying on them to police his clients and that Hanbleceya, as a for-profit business, should take responsibility instead of cutting financial corners when it comes to supervising the actions of its clients.

“It’s popular to address the for-profit part of our business, but it does afford us the opportunity to hire the best people, have the best programs to get these patients better –– so there’s an upside to that,” Paulson said. “The downside is what the community is experiencing. But to be perfectly honest, a lot of this is just not having knowledge of the population and a lot of fear of the unknown.”

Not knowing about Hanbleceya’s clients or business model is one one of the neighbors’ biggest concerns –– not knowing which clients have serious psychiatric problems, which ones may have criminal records for drug or sex offenses and not knowing how Hanbleceya determines whether these clients are safe to be wondering around unsupervised.

According to Paulson, clients go through a rigorous process that begins at one of his licensed residential homes that provides around the clock supervision. This is for clients who may be just getting out of a hospital. The average treatment for clients is 16 to 18 months, he said, and during that time they move into less-supervised, unlicensed living facilities.

So why can’t the city or state require supervision and give the neighbors of these residential homes some peace of mind?

“This is a complex issue, from a legal perspective,” said La Mesa City Councilmember Kristine Alessio, who looked into the laws governing residential treatment homes after hearing the complaints of the Wellesley Street residents.

Because of the federal Fair Housing Act, jurisdictions cannot regulate what kinds of people choose to live together –– the mentally ill or recovering addicts, for example. The state of California put a limit of six people per residential home and as long as there is no actual treatment going on at the house, there doesn’t have to be a license to just rent the living space to clients.

“It would be nice if we can condition the use to require an orderly, but we can’t,” Alessio said, adding that state law ties the hands of local jurisdictions to do more than check for building code violations or have police check in on any parolees who may be living there.

“The more I researched, the more it became obvious that there is basically nothing we can do,” she said.

But that might not be for long, as some cities have challenged the state law and enacted local ordinances to control the concentration of residential treatment facilities.

The city of Costa Mesa was sued for an ordinance that it passed requiring all the residential treatment homes in its jurisdiction to go through a permit process, not be grouped near each other, and to require an orderly at each home. So far Costa Mesa has won each case on appeal; however, similar ordinances for sober living homes passed by Newport Beach were struck down by the courts.

Paulson sees the laws as a sign that the state is encouraging his business model as a much-needed solution for mental health treatment.

“Many years ago when they closed all the state-run mental health facilities, there was no place for these people to go,” he said. “So my understanding is that, at that time, the state put together these policies to encourage people to go into the business of being able to help those who have mental illnesses, those who have drug addictions and so forth. So really the licensing bodies out there –– department of mental health, department of social services –– encourage this and essentially say that if you open up a facility with six or fewer people then we will allow you to do it by right in the state of California.”

From a zoning standpoint, Alessio agrees that these homes escape the usual requirements for a care facility, but, she said, “residential neighborhoods should be used for residential purposes,” and that cities should continue to look for ways to gain jurisdiction over what goes on in the homes.

“I think the solution is to make these homes be subject to conditional use permits,” she said, adding that the city could then address a variety of issues like stopping saturation; requiring onsite orderlies; setting up curfews; and addressing noise and litter complaints more easily.

A conditional-use permit would give the city the ability to pull the permit and shut down residential homes that were non-compliant.

“Without that ability, it becomes difficult for local jurisdictions to do anything –– and we don’t have it now,” she said.

However, cities are working to change that. At its most recent meeting, the California League of Cities addressed the issue of regulating group homes on a local level and resolved to call for draft legislation to give local jurisdictions the power to regulate them.

In the meantime, the Wellesley Street residents say they are fearful for their safety and for what the influx of treatment homes may mean for the character of their neighborhood.

“One thing that is no small matter is the value of our homes,” resident Mercy Graef added. “If I sell my home, I have to disclose under state law that these homes are here. My home is worth about $600,000 or more, but somebody is going to offer me $200- or $300,000 because why would they want to move here?”

––Write to Jeff Clemetson at [email protected].