Former Biddeford Sober House Owner Files Federal Complaint
The former operator of a sober house in Biddeford has filed a federal discriminatory housing complaint in opposition to the town, saying it was compelled to leave a downtown condo that it used as a temporary dwelling for males combating substance abuse. Jesse Harvey of Journey House LLC operated a sober house last yr in an house at 45 Hill St. that could accommodate six men. Harvey’s complaint claims town violated the federal fair housing law when a code enforcement officer informed Harvey’s landlord that the sober house was an unlawful operation as a result of the constructing did not have a sprinkler system. Sprinkler systems usually are not required for older traditional apartment buildings, but the city had raised the possibility that the unit containing the sober house might qualify as a rooming home and be subject to extra security requirements. The sober house was open for a yr in Biddeford before closing last December.
Journey House Sober Living now operates in Sanford. Meanwhile, the seven-unit condo building on Hill Street that is the topic of the dispute was destroyed April 2 in a fire that killed one elderly resident. The State Fire Marshal’s Office has mentioned it could by no means decide a trigger of the fireplace due to the extensive damage it induced. The federal housing discrimination complaint was filed March 27 and is unrelated to the fireplace that happened a week later. Within the complaint, Harvey mentioned the town and Code Enforcement Officer Roby Fecteau used zoning and land use ordinances to discriminate towards residents of the sober house. The complaint claims the city told landlord Richard Langevin in October 2017 that the sober house was an "illegal operation" as a result of the building did not have sprinklers. Town turned conscious of the sober house after two of its residents sought General Assistance from town. As part of that course of, the landlord completed a "Landlord Verification of Rental Unit" that required a constructing inspection if one had not been accomplished in the past yr, Jacques mentioned.
The city’s General Assistance administrator requested an inspection as a result of the residence had not been inspected for "quite some time" and its condition was unknown, Jacques said. Town says the complainants refused to provide access to the condominium unit regardless of reassurances that the inspection was only to find out if the apartment unit was safe, based on the city’s response to the complaint. "While metropolis representatives initially expressed concerns that the operation may should be categorized as a rooming house inside a multi-unit house constructing thereby probably requiring a sprinkler system throughout the units, Complainant continued to operate the sober house throughout the condominium constructing while the city sought clarification from the State of Maine Fire Marshal’s Office," Jacques wrote within the response to the complaint. The city was nonetheless waiting on extra info concerning the state requirements from the fireplace marshal’s office when the sober house closed. An investigation into the complaint shall be completed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. The department will difficulty a charge if the investigation indicates affordable cause that an unlawful discriminatory housing observe occurred. If no cheap trigger is found, the complaint will probably be dismissed, according to a letter from the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity notifying town of the complaint.
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