Sober home vote defies Mesa residents' pleas

Feb. 19—Some northwest Mesa residents were relieved last fall when a sober living house they called a nuisance was put on the market.

"When we found out the home was for sale, we literally broke down in tears," one neighbor recently told the Board of Adjustments about the home near Mesa Drive and McKellips Road.

Another neighbor told the board that since 2020, neighbors had observed arguments, fights, police, ambulances, trash thrown over the fences, people climbing walls and coming and going in the middle of the night.

Last August, the operator was put on the state's suspended provider list as part of the state's crackdown on Medicaid fraud. That precipitated the homeowner terminating the lease and putting the house on the market.

But neighbors' initial relief was dashed when they learned that the prospective buyer intends to establish a new addiction recovery program for up to 10 people.

That plan advanced this month when the Board of Adjustments voted 5-2 to grant a Special Use Permit for the homeowner to operate an addiction recovery facility in the six-bedroom house under a Community Residence classification.

Community residences are defined in city code as group-living facilities for the elderly or people with disabilities receiving support services. Sober living homes also fall under the definition.

Owners must register with the city, have a state license and be located at least 1,200 feet away from similar facilities, among other rules.

Before the board even discussed the matter, the city attorney warned it could not base its decision on the fact the house would be occupied by recovering addicts, who are protected from discrimination under the Fair Housing Act.

Not entirely heeding the warning, neighbors who addressed the board said they were traumatized by the previous sober living home and begged it not to allow a new operator.

After a lengthy discussion with numerous questions, a majority of board members followed city planners' recommendation to approve the home.

Officially, the board granted the property a "reasonable accommodation" from the required 1,200-foot buffer from other community residences.

Similar situations could play out in Mesa over the next year as sober living providers accused of fraud exit the market, leaving behind vacant apartments and homes in their wake.

When a sober living operator moves on, what happens next?

In this case, a behavioral health provider portraying itself as a knight in shining armor is taking over a troubled facility.

But most of the residents near the property don't want to take a chance.

New operator

The prospective new operator, Phoenix-based New Method Healing Center, has a state license to operate residential behavioral health facilities.

Founder Mario Torrez, a retired Phoenix firefighter, told the board his company has 16 locations throughout the Valley.

After hearing neighbors' experiences with the previous operator, Torrez said he was "disturbed" and stated that his program would be nothing like the previous one.

"My operation, I have program supervisors that oversee our behavioral health techs and we have three different shifts ... 24/7," Torrez said. "They are required to be awake.

"They do rounds every 60 minutes in the residence and (residents) have bedtime set at 9 p.m."

He said the program does not accept sex offenders.

"It's very structured," he continued, adding that clients "get about 35 hours worth of group therapy, individual therapy every week."

One of the five neighbors who spoke at the hearing offered tentative support for New Method because of its assurances of supervision.

The other four offered staunch opposition.

All five agreed the previous operation had little control.

"There was no structure, there was no plan," a neighbor recalled.

But the Arizona Department of Health Services' website documents problems at one of New Method's facilities in Phoenix.

It issued numerous citations following two inspections in 2021 and 2022, respectively.

No violations were found during two other inspections in the same time period.

The citations are largely related to lapses in record keeping, staff training and following prescribed client treatment plans.

In 2021, the company was issued a Notice of Intent to Revoke its license. New Method reached a settlement with the department to continue operating.

The 2021 inspection followed an incident in which a client overdosed at one of the company's facilities and paramedics responded to the house.

New Method staff told an inspector they believed the client arranged for fentanyl to be dropped over the facility's fence following a private phone call.

The inspector also noted an incident report in which a patient was reportedly stealing other patients' medication from a locked office.

In an interview with the inspector, the employees "acknowledged the facility was currently low on staff," the report states.

In a text message, the Tribune asked Torrez for an interview about the inspection reports' documentation of low staffing and clients obtaining drugs while in a facility.

He wrote back, "That's not accurate information at all." He did not respond to a request for more information.

Hand wringing

City planning staff said New Method's request to create the community residence met the criteria outlined in city code for exceptions to the 1,200-foot spacing requirement.

The hearing was peppered with reminders from staff to focus solely on the three criteria for in city code — and not neighbors' fears of having a sober living home nearby.

"When enacting or applying zoning or land use laws, state and local governments may not act because of the fears, prejudices, stereotypes or unsubstantiated assumptions about current or prospective residents because of the residents' protected characteristics," a city attorney said.

Board members seemed moved by both the legal warnings and the neighbors' plight.

Some board members expressed discomfort that the permit would stay with the property indefinitely even if the home changes hands or a new company takes over at a later time.

The board asked if it could require the permit to be renewed after a certain time period; staff said no.

If issues came up, neighbors' recourse would be to contact the police or the Department of Health Services; Mesa can only revoke the permit for narrow technical reasons outside of management problems.

Before approving the request, one board member lamented that they were being asked to receive public comment but also disregard the complaints.

"A lot of those emotional things and those other issues are not supposed to carry water, but they do," one board member said.