Johnson County neighbors file lawsuit to stop new addict recovery home from opening
A Kansas City nonprofit’s plan to open a home for recovering addicts in an Overland Park neighborhood has sparked a bitter fight between neighbors this year about whether such a program belongs in a residential area.
A small group of residents in Shannon Valley Estates, just southwest of College Boulevard and Antioch Road, raised safety concerns about having people in treatment in their neighborhood despite assurances from the group, Artists Helping the Homeless, that the house would be staffed round-the-clock and secured like its other sober homes across the metro.
City officials and neighborhood association leaders in Overland Park declined neighbors’ requests to intervene, citing the federal Fair Housing Act’s protections for recovery homes, which prompted a weeks-long dispute between residents about the future of the nonprofit’s project.
Now a pair of neighbors have filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction to stop the new program, arguing it violates the neighborhood association’s covenants, the area’s “high-class” purpose and its “ambience,” according to court records filed this week in Johnson County District Court.
Planning and legal staff in city hall who reviewed the plans have said the law is clear that they cannot preempt the plan and cited agreements from Artists Helping the Homeless President Kar Woo to go above and beyond with inspections and communication with the city.
The Shannon Valley Homes Association also condemned any litigation attempting to stop the plan as “frivolous” and “certain to fail.”
“We understand that there are residents that are going to be displeased by this finding,” the association wrote in one message to members earlier this year. “We would encourage everyone to continue to act with respect towards our neighbors regardless of their position on this issue. We appreciate all the thoughts, views, and time that we all have given to this situation. We are hopeful that we can all come together and move forward as one unified neighborhood.”
Controversial plans
The nonprofit Artists Helping the Homeless began work in December on a plan to use a four-bedroom home on a small 113th Street cul-de-sac to provide housing for up to seven recovering drug and alcoholic addicts participating in the group’s services.
The program offers free housing, food and medication and connects them with professional counseling and treatment to help them reintegrate into their personal and professional lives sober. The residents are vetted and referred to the nonprofit through established local detox and hospital programs and live in the home with a professional support specialist until they “graduate” from the program into an independent housing situation.
Artists Helping the Homeless operates several similar recovery locations across the metro and in Lawrence. The home on 113th Street is its first Johnson County location.
The plan immediately drew criticism from some neighbors who feared the presence of the home could pose safety risks to the area or negatively impact property values. They bombarded city officials with questions and pleas to prevent it from opening at the start of this year.
“That such a thing can happen in our neighborhood of unlocked doors in the daytime is beyond us,” neighbor Richard Renzi told the City Council in January. “It’s a nightmare for our sense of security, not to mention the resale value of our largest personal investments: our homes.”
Multiple attempts to reach Woo about the lawsuit and recovery homes plans were unsuccessful.
The nonprofit does not admit people who have been convicted of a violent crime nor anyone who is required to register as a sex offender, and a professional staff member is on site to supervise the residents at all times, Overland Park Planning Director Jack Messer wrote in a memo outlining the program.
Overland Park has 17 other sober homes in residential communities across the city and a law enforcement review found no correlation between the homes and higher calls for police or medical services, Messer wrote. Other cities reported the same is true where other Artists Helping the Homeless homes operate and Messer said the group has been very cooperative with the city, even though the staff’s reviews are not required under city or state law.
Messer also cited a report prepared for the Drug and Alcoholism Council of Johnson County that found “it is critical that recovery support and treatment services are available in every municipality in this county — instead of forcing residents outside of the county to find the support they need,” he wrote.
Lawsuit filed
Despite the nonprofit’s responses to resident concerns, a small group of neighbors living near the 113th Street cul-de-sac continued to push city and neighborhood association leaders to intervene early this year.
They argued both city zoning rules and neighborhood association covenants limiting how many unrelated people can live in a single home could be used to bar the project.
But Messer and city legal staff determined the recovery home falls squarely under protections laid out in the federal Fair Housing Act that prohibit the city from preempting it.
The law requires reasonable accommodations for residents with disabilities, including alcoholism and drug abuse, which exempt recovery homes from the city zoning and even neighborhood association codes that would otherwise limit what can be done in a typical single-family home, Messer said. No city or state licenses are required for the recovery home to operate, either, although Woo, the nonprofit’s president, has agreed to voluntarily register the house with the city’s rental inspection program, Messer added.
The Shannon Valley Homes Association also has refused to intervene on behalf of upset neighbors, citing the same reasons as city officials, which has sparked a heated debate among residents about the risks of legal action against the home and even the possibility of recalling the current association board over the issue.
David and Cynthia King, who live in the same cul-de-sac as the home, decided to pursue their own action and filed a lawsuit seeking a court order to halt the nonprofit’s plan early last week. The lawsuit cites the association’s section prohibiting “noxious or offensive activities” and that homes only be used for single-family residence purposes.
“Free and unfettered use of one’s property without regard to a subdivision’s ambience, safety, stated purpose and harmony is not in the public interest,” according to the couple’s complaint.
Woo has not yet responded to the lawsuit in court, records show.
But city officials and attorney Christopher Kurtz, who was hired by the neighborhood association to review the issue, both concluded the lawsuit is unlikely to succeed given established case law and the federal housing law superseding the neighborhood and local rules.
“At this point, the Board has done all that it can do. The Board has worked hard to keep the SVHA from incurring liability during this situation,” the association wrote in a message to members on Friday.
“As a reminder, the SVHA and its residents are under an obligation to allow the residents of the (recovery home) to live in peaceful enjoyment of their house in accordance with the reasonable accommodation granted by the City that Federal law entitles them to have.”
This story was originally published March 7, 2022 at 3:29 PM with the headline "Johnson County neighbors file lawsuit to stop new addict recovery home from opening."
