New in the neighborhood: Baker City residents worried about home being rented by people recovering from drug and alcohol addictions

Apr. 28—By JAYSON JACOBY —Baker City Herald

Ethan Kelley and Val Haworth stand on their back porch on perhaps the nicest morning of 2023, but even as the late April sunshine beams down and the songbirds chirp, the couple are concerned.

The source is a deck.

It's attached to the south side of the second story of the home directly west of the couple's house at 11th and B streets in Baker City.

From Kelley and Haworth's yard, the deck at 3065 B St. is easy to see.

But that's not what they're worried about.

The problem, they said, is that anyone standing on that deck has a direct view into their back yard.

"I don't want people to stare over here," Haworth said on Tuesday, April 25. "My privacy is now taken away."

Haworth and Kelley, along with several of their neighbors, have been talking, and in some cases worrying, about the home at 3065 B St. over the past week or so.

That's since they learned that New Directions Northwest Inc., the Baker City agency that among other things helps people with addictions, bought the home. New Directions last year received a $1.4 million state grant for housing needs, including buying and renovating the B Street home, which it bought for $255,000, according to the Baker County Assessor's office.

The 46-year-old home, which previously was a single-family dwelling, is being remodeled for use as an Oxford House, where up to seven men, who have overcome drug and alcohol addiction, would live in a drug- and alcohol-free setting intended to help them maintain their sobriety.

Residents could begin moving in within a couple months, said Shari Selander, New Directions CEO.

Proponents, some of whom spoke during a public meeting Wednesday, April 26 at New Directions, said Oxford houses are quiet, responsible neighbors whose residents would enhance rather than detract from the neighborhood.

What's an Oxford house?

Oxford House, a nonprofit corporation started in 1975 in Maryland, operates hundreds of homes across the U.S. There are almost 250 Oxford homes in Oregon, including four in La Grande (all opened since 2015), three in Pendleton (dating to 2016) and two in Ontario (opened in 2017 and 2019).

Oxford house residents have overcome an addiction to drugs or alcohol and are looking for a place to live where they can remain sober and continue to recover, said Marji Lind, a clinical counselor at New Directions.

During the public meeting Wednesday morning at New Directions, Ed Smith, leader of the Oxford House Oregon Chapter, told the audience of about 40 people, Haworth and several other neighbors among them, that the Baker City home will accommodate up to seven men.

The homes are not co-ed.

(Lind said New Directions would like to open an Oxford House for women in Baker City as well.)

Smith said Oxford houses are drug- and alcohol-free. Residents who violate that rule have to leave, he said.

The homes are also "child-friendly," Smith said.

Registered sex offenders are not eligible to live in an Oxford house, he said.

"Most of our houses have children living in them," Smith said.

He elaborated on the process by which a person qualifies to live in an Oxford house.

Besides having completed some type of addiction treatment, residents have to fill out an application and then undergo an interview by current Oxford house residents. The current residents then vote on whether to accept an applicant, with at least 80% having to be in favor.

(For the Baker City home, which has no residents now, a couple of men who live in an Oxford home in the area likely will move in, and they, along with other members of the Oregon Chapter, will interview applicants and decide which can live here, Smith said.)

Those who are accepted have to pay rent (the amount is set by Oxford House). Those who don't have jobs and use government assistance to pay their rent are required to do a minimum of 20 hours per week of community service, Smith said.

"We expect people to be part of the community, that's how this thing works," he said.

In response to a question, Smith said research that's available on the Oxford House website (oxfordhouse.org) shows that people who live for at least 18 months in an Oxford house have an 85% success rate at remaining sober for at least five years.

The success rate in Oregon is even higher, he said, at about 96%.

Smith told the audience that Oxford houses are "good neighbors" who take care of the home and try to help neighbors with such things as shoveling snow.

"We are excited to come here to Baker," Smith said. "Give us a chance."

Pendleton Police Chief Charles Byram said he was notified by local treatment agencies when the three Oxford houses opened in that city.

Byram said the police department has not received complaints related to any of the houses.

"Nothing that's concerning at all," he said.

In La Grande, where there are four Oxford houses, Lt. Jason Hays of the La Grande Police Department wrote in an email to the Herald that "initially, our community was a bit resistive to the Oxford house idea.

"As a police department, we have had no problems with our Oxford houses," Hays wrote. "They seem to self regulate very well and have pretty strict rules & policies. Through my experiences as a 25-year police officer, the people who stay at the Oxford house(s) are sincere about their recovery and want to be successful in their sobriety. We have found them to be law abiding and do not create a hardship on the neighbors around them."

Hays wrote that the police department has received eight to 10 calls for service annually at each of the houses, which have from nine to 15 residents. Three of the homes are for men, and one is for women.

"Most of these are non-criminal calls and are a result of needing medical assistance or civil advice," Hays wrote.

Neighbors feel blindsided

Kelley and Haworth, who bought their home at 11th and B streets about three and a half years ago, said they understand that people who are recovering from addiction need a place to live.

But they fear that having as many as seven men living next door, as opposed to a smaller family, will change not only the neighborhood but their own lives as neighbors.

"To me it seems remarkably different," Kelley said.

"It's a large change for our lives," Haworth said.

Their concerns aren't limited, though, to the potential effects of the Oxford house.

Kelley and Haworth, in common with some of their neighbors, felt blindsided when they learned that New Directions had bought the house, and for what purpose.

Kelley said he found out about the purchase from Farel Baxter, who with his wife, Linda, lives on the other side of 3065 B St. Baxter had talked with a real estate agent involved in the sale of the home.

"It seemed odd that nobody was informed," Kelley said. "We're still working through the shock."

Holly Kerns, director of the Baker City/County Planning Department, said on Tuesday, April 25 that because the Oxford house is still a residential use, as when a single family lived there, New Directions did not have to apply for a conditional-use permit. As a result, there was no requirement to notify residents within a certain distance of the property, as is the case when, for instance, the proposed use of a property changes from residential to commercial.

The house is in the high-density residential zone.

Other neighbors express concerns

One block to the south, along A Street between 11th and 12th, Peter Gorniak and Robert Underwood are also talking about the Oxford house.

Gorniak lives at 11th and A, a bit south and across an alley from Oxford house. He bought his home in December 2018.

Underwood lives on 12th Street, and his property abuts the New Directions lot. Underwood has lived there for about two and a half years.

He said he's out of town often for work, and he worries about his wife and his 10 grandkids who visit frequently. Underwood said he's concerned that the Oxford house could attract drug users.

Gorniak said contractors working on the home had started without obtaining permits from the Baker City Building Department.

Dawn Kitzmiller, the building official, said New Directions picked up a permit on Monday, April 25. Workers are adding windows to the basement.

Kitzmiller said an inspector will later go through the home to check on smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and ensure that all sleeping areas have proper egress.

Gorniak, who attended the Wednesday meeting at New Directions, said on Tuesday morning that he's skeptical of claims that the Oxford house will benefit the community.

"You're not helping Baker at all," he said.

He branded claims about the positive aspects of Oxford houses as "rainbow skies and chocolate rivers."

"I'm not a cruel person but I am rooted in reality," he said. "There are going to be problems."

Haworth said that after attending Wednesday's meeting, and hearing supporters extoll the virtues of Oxford houses, she remains concerned about the possible changes to her neighborhood.

"The folks from New Directions made Oxford houses sound amazing in every way and like anyone would be lucky to have them in their neighborhood," Haworth wrote in an email to the Herald. "I am still doubtful how many people would actually sign up to live next door to one. I feel like those of us who are still uncomfortable with the idea were made to feel like there is something wrong with us for not accepting it wholeheartedly."

Haworth said she appreciated that Smith, the Oregon Chapter leader for Oxford House, said during Wednesday's meeting that the organization would consider installing a privacy screen on the home's second-story deck in response to her concerns. Smith also said that Haworth or other neighbors would have phone numbers of people associated with Oxford House should they have complaints or concerns.

The address and phone number of each Oxford house is listed on the organization's website.

Next-door neighbor not concerned about effects

Farel Baxter, the first neighbor to learn that New Directions had bought the house next to his, said he initially had worries about the change.

But once he learned more about the Oxford house concept, Baxter, who has lived in his home since 1978, said those fears went away.

"They're going to clean that house up, it's going to look nice," he said on Tuesday, April 25. "I'm not worried about this house and the people living there. I expect they'll be decent people."

Baxter conceded that his impression is influenced by his experience working as a volunteer for seven years at Powder River Correctional Facility in Baker City.

He worked with male inmates who were undergoing treatment in the minimum-security prison's drug and alcohol program.

Baxter said he's confident that men who have worked to overcome addictions — as Oxford house residents are required to prove they have done — will be good neighbors.

Baxter said much the same thing during Wednesday's meeting at New Directions, saying he expects the remodeled Oxford house will be better than some others in the neighborhood.

"It's not going to be an unsafe situation," he said.

Baxter, 79, said his complaints about his neighborhood are based on other properties that are unkempt and sources of loud noises at all hours.

He said the situation has worsened over the past decade or so.

"What bugs me is the devaluation of my property due to the eyesores," Baxter said.

For him the bottom line is that people who have conquered addiction and want to stay sober need to have a place to live — and ideally one where they share space with people who have had similar problems and have the same goal.

"We do want to have ways to help these folks," Baxter said. "We can't just throw them out to the winds. Everybody deserves a second chance."

Former residents grateful for Oxford houses

That second chance is precisely what Oxford houses offer, said Smith, the organization's Oregon Chapter leader, who grew up in Milwaukie, a Portland suburb.

He told the audience during the Wednesday meeting that his descent into addiction started when he tried marijuana at age 8. He went on to start with meth when he was 12.

Smith said he has been sober since his last arrest on Oct. 2, 2003.

He had been clean for about seven months when he moved into an Oxford house in Hillsboro with eight other men.

Although Smith said he initially rejected the other residents' attempts to make him a true part of the group, shunning their help in buying him groceries and clothes, he eventually came to understand that "this is the only family I have."

"My parents had disowned me," he said.

Over time, Smith said, he embraced not only the fellowship of his house, but the overall Oxford House concepts.

"I had a new addiction, and it was to be of service to others," he said.

He not only has stayed sober, but he reconnected with his family and was elected as a city councilor.

"Oxford Houses changed my life," Smith said. "All due to recovery and a safe, affordable place to call home. The opportunity to see that there is a better way."

Smith's colleague, Jess White, Eastern Oregon Regional Leader for Oxford Houses, said his experience with the organization did more than change his life.

"It saved my life, basically," White said.

He said he grew up in an environment where drugs and alcohol were a daily part of life. He said he has been sober since he was released from jail in 2014.

He said he initially lived in a "sober living house" and eventually learned about Oxford houses.

Living with other men who could empathize with his struggles was vital, White said.

"It's a safe place, that's the main thing," he said.