STATE SAYS HALFWAY HOUSE WAS MISLEADING

State Says Halfway House Misled Court, Operated Without A License

BRADENTON -- A halfway house evicted from its offices Monday was
investigated last year for misleading state officials and offering services
it wasn't authorized to provide.

The Florida Department of Children and Families and the state attorney's
office investigated A Brighter Side after a court-referred client hit a
7-year-old boy while driving with a suspended license.

A Brighter Side, on 34th Street West in Bradenton, was never licensed to
provide the counseling or lock-down services it promised to judges, who
referred defendants to the agency rather than send them to jail.

The state eventually told the agency to quit making claims that it was a
treatment facility, but allowed it to keep operating its "sober house."

Before the investigation, the courts sent about 70 repeat drunken driving
offenders to A Brighter Side, but have since stopped the referrals.

However, probation officers have continued to refer clients to the halfway
house because it is the only agency of its kind in the county. Last year,
they referred 40 clients to A Brighter Side, according to Fred Loveland,
director of community services for Manatee County.

Now poor financial management threatens to shut the facility down altogether.

Keith Deitz, president, is scrambling to raise $40,000 by Saturday to pay
back rent and an additional three months' rent the landlord is demanding on
the 10 lakefront duplexes that house clients.

If Deitz doesn't come up with the money, the Sheriff's Office will evict
him and his clients on Saturday. Many of the clients said they will be
homeless.

First Step of Sarasota is the nearest residential substance abuse treatment
center.

A Brighter Side is funded strictly from rents the clients pay, usually $100
a week. Often, Deitz said, clients didn't have jobs for several weeks at a
time and didn't pay him, causing him to get behind with the landlord.

While the agency has had a host of problems, it provides a scarce but vital
service, according to substance abuse experts.

"There's a real need for supportive housing," said John Daigle, executive
director of the Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse Association.

Daigle said there is a shortage of such facilities because they are
difficult to run. He said there's a lack of money and community support for
them, as well.

"There's a lack of recognition of the important role they can play in
keeping people sober," he said.

Members of the Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse Association are licensed
substance abuse agencies but Daigle said that licensing isn't necessary for
the type of service A Brighter Side now provides.

In order to provide court-ordered services and to get local, state and
federal grants, substance abuse centers must be licensed with the DCF.

Don Hartery, assistant state attorney, said his office discovered that A
Brighter Side didn't have the ability to keep clients on-site as judges
ordered after Marcus Farmer, 7, ended up in the hospital with a broken leg.
Eliseo Tovar, who was supposed to be in lock-down, was driving to work on a
suspended license when he hit the child.

"They're not licensed; they don't provide treatment," Hartery said. "They
were not providing the service they were supposed to be providing for
repeat drunk drivers. They were misleading the system."

The halfway house had hoped a federal grant would help bail it out. A
Brighter Side had submitted a bid through Bay Pines Veterans Affairs
Medical Center in St. Petersburg to serve the homeless.

After learning of the program's eviction and that it isn't licensed by the
state, Larry Christman, a spokesman for Bay Pines, said the contract
wouldn't have been awarded.

"We wouldn't even offer a bid until they're OK," Christman said. "We
would've picked up on their flaws."