NEIGHBORHOOD REHAB HOUSES DRAW FIRE

Some Neighbors Nervous About Homes For Recovering Addicts

LAFAYETTE - Elizabeth LeBlanc said recovering drug addicts and alcoholics
need a place to start over after leaving a rehabilitation facility. But
that place shouldn't be in her neighborhood.

LeBlanc said she's afraid to stay home alone or let her two young children
play in the front yard of their Harrell Drive home. That's because up to 15
recovering drug addicts and alcoholics moved into a home a few doors down
nearly six months ago.

There are three more homes just like it in the Broadmoor Boulevard area and
one near the Oil Center on Parduton Street. They're part of Oxford House, a
network of 850 group homes across the nation that help recovering drug
addicts and alcoholics reintegrate into society after rehabilitation.

"I never would have bought this house if I knew they were there," LeBlanc said.

Virginia McGehee isn't afraid. She said the men who live in an Oxford House
home a few doors down from her on Parduton Street are good neighbors who
offer to mow the lawns of nearby elderly residents.

"They're quiet," McGehee said. "You wouldn't know they were there unless
someone told you."

Oxford House is a nonprofit organization that formed in Silver Springs,
Md., in 1975 to provide a democratically run, self-supporting, drug-free
home for recovering alcohol and drug addicts, said Cathy Polin, executive
director. It targets neighborhoods with nice homes that can provide a clean
and sober environment, Polin said.

"These are good guys going to work and trying to get their lives back
together," she said. "Keep in mind this is somebody's brother, husband,
father or friend. The fear is based on nothing."

Consolidated Council member Rob Stevenson, who represents the Broadmoor
Boulevard area, said Oxford House sounds great on the surface.

"But it scares the heck out of the neighbors," he said. "Anytime you get
eight to 12 men living in a single-family home - even without a history of
those problems - parents of small children will get worried.

"I think they (recovering drug addicts and alcoholics) deserve a second
chance, but in a supervised environment, not in a neighborhood filled with
small children and young families."

Stevenson wants the group homes out of Lafayette neighborhoods, he said.

"I'm looking for any legal way to get them out," he said. "Legislation is a
long-term solution that doesn't happen overnight. I'm looking into what I
can do in the short term."