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- CITATION ISSUED FOR: Unapproved “group living”
- ISSUED BY: City of Portland Permitting & Development
- ISSUED TO: Sober living home operated by Wiicare
- DATE: Aug. 14
- PENALTY: $900 per month the violation is unabated
The city of Portland has issued a zoning code citation to the Wilkes neighborhood sober living home whose novel business model has been the target of neighborhood complaints. Wiicare, the for-profit company that runs the home, recruits people off the streets into its drug and mental health treatment programs—and then temporarily houses them in residential neighborhoods while billing Medicaid for their treatment.
City officials first opened an investigation into the home four months ago after a neighbor complained about an “unapproved halfway house.” The case was slow to proceed. Officials disagreed over whether it was protected by federal fair housing laws, records show.
But after WW published a story describing how Wiicare’s home worked (“Crowded House,” Aug. 7), city officials jumped into action.
That afternoon, an inspector from the Bureau of Development Services went out to visit the home. The inspector didn’t make it inside—no one was home—but noted violations anyway, citing the WW story. “In the [story], the operator of the business acknowledged operation of business at site as well as clients residing in home in violation of group home rules,” the inspector wrote.
A week later, the city sent the home’s owner, an Arizona shell company controlled by one of Wiicare’s founders, a “notice of zoning violation” for allowing unapproved “group living” in a residential neighborhood.
It is remarkable that city inspectors singled out the Wilkes property for enforcement. Only 30 properties in all of Portland are granted special permission for “group living.” WW reviewed the list, and none appears to be a sober living home.
“It’s a complaint-driven process. Alleged zoning code violations are addressed as complaints are received,” says bureau spokesman Ken Ray.
WW spoke to executives at two nonprofits who run Portland recovery homes, like the one in Wilkes, and neither said they had any issues with Portland zoning enforcement.
Recovery homes are considered an effective tool for helping people transition off the streets, and the state says it currently has half the number it needs. But more aggressive regulation of recovery homes could undermine the effort to build more, says Deena Feldes, director of recovery home operator Transcending Hope.
Still, records show other reasons for the city to be concerned about the Wilkes house.
A state inspector successfully entered the home and interviewed residents a week later, on Aug. 21. Josh Fisher, the Oregon Health Authority inspector, found someone living in a garage, and a variety of other maintenance issues “that didn’t seem up to code,” he wrote.
Also concerning: The company was providing addiction counseling inside the home, which isn’t a certified clinic. “It is unclear how the clinicians are billing for those services,” Fisher noted.