RESIDENTS CRY FOUL OVER DRUG-TREATMENT HOME

City Vows To Keep Neighbors Better Informed Of Similar Projects In The Future

Lisa Van Hoosear said she won't let her 11-year-old daughter walk to the
bus stop alone if a treatment home for teen-age boys with substance-abuse
problems opens in her neighborhood.

Linda Harrah, who helped collect 50 signatures on petitions opposing the
home, is unhappy with how LifeSteps Foundation and the county notified
people about its proposed home.

The City Council on Monday agreed to send the county a letter offering to
help develop guidelines for improving future communications with residents
on similar issues.

The county hired the LifeSteps Foundation and contributed $150,000 in
start-up funds for a treatment home for boys 13 to 17, that will be at 227
North Eighth St.

LifeSteps official Joan McKenna notified the city of the home plans during
a public comment period March 20, but didn't say where the home would be.

She has since apologized for not including the address and has
unsuccessfully tried to assure area residents that the home and its clients
will be good neighbors.

County official Bill Hallum said the county already is examining ways to
prevent this problem from recurring, but is limited by a state law that
prohibits local communities from regulating group homes with six beds or fewer.

Harrah questioned placing troubled youth directly across from where a
children's museum is being developed, near the downtown commercial core
Grover is trying to enhance and in a high-density residential area.

"This constitutes an overloading of this area, with potential problems for
the residents and the Police Department, and it negatively impacts property
values ... in the area," she said.

McKenna, a statewide vice president for the foundation formed in 1983, said
youth in the home will be supervised 24 hours a day and will not be allowed
outside on their own until they have shown substantial progress.

She said it is important to place the youth "in a community like Grover
Beach since it is in such an environment that they will live when they
complete their recovery."

LifeSteps has been established on the Central Coast for nine years and has
three substance-abuse programs in the county - without having had any
trouble with the police, she said.

"We haven't really experienced any serious concerns with the towns we work
in," McKenna said, noting that neighbors are invited to open houses when
the facilities open. The Grover home will open in 45 to 90 days.

Boys will be placed in the program by the county and will stay between six
and 12 months, she said. There will be between one and three staff members
on duty per client at all times.

Hallum, a division manager for county Drug and Alcohol Services, said, "the
county is interested in doing a better job in the future" on helping the
homes get started.

As a result of issues raised in Grover, the county will develop guidelines
for future homes, which will suggest how to build good relations with
neighborhoods, he said later.

Councilman Ron Arnoldsen summarized the council's reaction about not being
notified in advance: "I don't have a problem with the program, but I do
with the procedure."

Grover Mayor Dave Ekbom reported being unhappy after discovering there was
nothing he could do when a similar program moved next to his mother's house
a few years ago, but wound up being surprised that things worked out fine.

He also suggested that the community will have less to fear from troubled
teens being heavily supervised than from unsupervised kids with problems
who are living around town.