After drug death in Delco, concern over unregulated sober-living homes

When Nether Providence officials heard rumblings in 2014 about plans for an ornate Victorian house in Wallingford, they approached the owner.

He first said it might become a rental property, then backed off that plan.

The whispers - that it would be a home for recovering addicts - didn’t subside. But the township heard nothing more until September.

That’s when police found Brian Fetterman - a 25-year-old athletic trainer described by his mother as passionate, lovable, “the last person anyone would expect” to abuse drugs - dead in a third-floor bathroom. And officials were stunned to learn that Providence Recovery House had been operating for months.

“We had no additional information that would lead us to believe they were using it for anything other than a single-family residence,” said township manager Gary Cummings.

Now, the fate of the sober-living residence is roiling one of Delaware County’s quietest municipalities. Neighbors, concerned that the home operated without their knowledge, are uneasy. Attorneys for the township and the home are girding for a fight over whether zoning laws allow it to stay open.

The dispute is just a small piece of an ongoing national conversation surrounding sober-living homes, regarded by health professionals as a final stop in an addict’s return to the community after weeks or months of intensive inpatient treatment.

Offering care, but never treatment, sober-living homes tout 12-step support programs and yoga classes, for example, usually amid a community of addicts who share the same experiences and vulnerabilities.

Residents - or their families - often pay hundreds or thousands of dollars per month, but sober-living homes are largely unregulated and unlicensed.

Hundreds across the state and the country operate to high-standards. Others do not. And despite their proliferation and legal battles over their existence, mental health advocates, lawmakers and attorneys still do not agree on how much the government should and can intervene when caring for addicts in recovery.

“If some kind of healthcare service is being delivered in a building . . . it is an important for first responders to know,” said Dave Fetterman, Brian’s father, of West Penn Township, Schuylkill County. “It’s an awareness and preparedness thing.”

That’s just one of the arguments behind the township’s clash with Providence Recovery House.

After Fetterman’s overdose, township officials cited its owner for operating a sober-living home without special exception in a residential district zoned for single families.

The recovery house didn’t exactly hide. On its website, it described itself as a residence for up to 10 men in the western suburbs. But it doesn’t disclose its address - a multi-bedroom home along North Providence Road, in a quiet Wallingford neighborhood.

It is unclear how many residents currently live there. Dung “Gabe” Lau, owner of the residence, declined to comment through his attorney, Wendy McLean.

After Fetterman’s death, Nether Providence officials ordered the home to immediately shut down.

In an appeal days later, McLean argued the home is protected by federal law, and as such, “the township is required to accommodate this use.”

The house remains open. A zoning hearing on the matter has been set for Feb. 8.

Lau’s lawyer maintains addicts in recovery are protected under the federal Americans with Disabilities and the Fair Housing Acts, both of which bar local governments from discriminating against disabled people by dictating where they can or can’t live.

Accordingly, she said, the owners of such homes don’t have to tell officials where they operate.

“People in recovery have the right to live someplace nice, just like everyone else,” McLean said. “There are drug addicts living everywhere, and you just don’t know it.”

Township Solicitor Michael Maddren contends that federal and local zoning laws must work in tandem. And because the Americans with Disabilities Act only protects addicts in recovery - not those currently abusing drugs - Fetterman’s death, he argues, bars the home from the protections offered by federal law.

In the meantime, Maddren said he and township officials want to meet with McLean and the home’s owners to discuss a compromise that could result in the home remaining open - with conditions. But because case law on the matter is still evolving, he said, “this is a very difficult issue.”

And not one with a clear precedent.

Cities nationwide have taken steps in recent years to regulate the spread of sober living homes - efforts that have met resistance.

Last month in Costa Mesa, Calif., a federal appeals court issued an injunction, putting on hold a 2014 city ordinance that effectively limited the number of sober residences permitted to operate in single-family homes. Other cities have paid hefty settlements to resolve claims stemming from similar regulations.

In Philadelphia, where sober living homes have proliferated for years, dozens of residences have become voluntarily certified through the Pennsylvania Alliance of Recovery Residences, a statewide organization that echoes a national model.

State legislators and officials in Harrisburg are also exploring efforts to parallel that model.

At the same time, other townships and cities have kept such homes in check without challenge. One California city, San Clemente, still has a moratorium on any new sober-living homes.

In Bristol Township, Bucks County, where lawmakers estimate more than 100 recovery homes operate, council members are considering a similar six-month moratorium.

Beyond how the case in Nether Providence may unfold in next month’s zoning hearing, broader questions of care, of autonomy, of licensing remain.

“We need to figure out how we’re going to deal with facilities like this,” said Sharon Schaefer, a resident who lives yards away from Providence Recovery House. “And not because we have a problem with people in recovery living in our community.

“It was flying under the radar, and someone dies right across from my house,” she said. “Someone needs to speak up and figure this out.”

cmccabe@philly.com

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