For too long the Newport Beach city council, city attorney, and community development department have sat idly by allowing an overconcentration of group homes to cause problems within our neighborhoods.  While stating they would “like to see each of our residential neighborhoods retain its residential character” they have taken zero steps to do just that.  In stark contrast, we have neighboring cities like Costa Mesa proactively tackling these issues head on by successfully passing and defending ordinances resulting in positive outcomes for its residents.

It has become readily apparent that the settlement, in which Newport Beach had to pay millions to multiple group homes in 2015, is still fresh in the minds of the current city council and the city attorney who oversaw the settlement.  Despite frequent pleas for action from concerned neighbors the city has adopted a bureaucratic stance if the home has a state license so “our hands are tied”.  An unfortunate outcome of this is the recent front page news where a detox home patient broke down the front door of a nearby residence at 4 AM, losing his life in the process.  What hasn’t been reported is that in this small neighborhood of roughly 70 single family residences, five (two detox/recovery, two sober living, one elder care) are group homes.  How about that for residential character!  That is up to 30 individuals in a single neighborhood at any given time. And there are many other examples where multiple group homes exist with less than 50 feet of distance between them.  

We have had enough and request that the city council listen to our concerns at the next meeting on September 14th and agree to lay out tangible next steps that can be made at the city, county, and state level to end the overconcentration of group homes in Newport Beach once and for all.  Potential solutions include stricter regulation of the businesses operating these homes, documentation so the city knows who is actually living in these homes, 24/7 supervision of the patients, requiring each home to have a special use permit renewed annually, and specified distance requirements between group homes of any kind (licensed or unlicensed). 

We thank you for your signature / support and will provide updates as progress is made.  Please forward this to like-minded friends and neighbors and help us bring more visibility to this petition.