Costa Mesa to Decide Recovery Center's Fate : Zoning: Area residents say the facility, operating under a conditional-use permit, is increasing vagrancy and crime. Tenants say the center is important for their sobriety.

Costa Mesa to Decide Recovery Center’s Fate : Zoning: Area residents say the facility, operating under a conditional-use permit, is increasing vagrancy and crime. Tenants say the center is important for their sobriety.

By HOPE HAMASHIGE

April 29, 1995 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

COSTA MESA — The City Council will vote Monday on whether to grant a so-called sober living center the permit it needs to continue operating.

The Recovery Center complex at 1110 Victoria St. has 19 two-bedroom apartments that house about 40 recovering drug addicts and alcoholics. Residents of the area have complained that the center is responsible for an increasing amount of vagrancy and crime.

“It is less than 1,000 feet from an elementary school, which is the part we really object to,” said Heather Somers, president of the East Side Homeowners Assn. Although the center is not near her home or even in the area she represents, Somers said, it is a concern.

The Planning Commission on April 10 granted the center, which opened last year, a conditional-use permit.

The people who live at the center said they are stunned to find themselves at the heart of a controversy that threatens to board up their home.

“If only people would come over and see what this place is all about, I don’t think it would be such a big issue,” said Nancy Clark, executive director of Recovery Center, which charges residents $750 a month rent.

To be accepted at the center, Clark said, people recovering from substance abuse must agree to live under the rules. Everyone must have a job and must pass drug and alcohol tests, must be in by curfew and must attend Narcotics Anonymous or Alcoholics Anonymous meetings regularly.

Many of the residents credit Recovery Center for their sobriety. “The fellowship is a godsend,” one former drug addict said. “I am so grateful to be here.”

Another resident, a 37-year-old construction worker, said he turned to the center to break a drug and alcohol habit he has had since childhood. “I needed the structure and direction this place provides,” he said. “This place is about becoming a productive member of society.”