The Lincoln City Council and city officials are attempting to thread a controversial needle as they consider a proposed ordinance to regulate collaborative sober-living homes for people in recovery.
The homes must be allowed to operate and obtain reasonable accommodations from existing ordinances through the federal Fair Housing Act, which says cities cannot discriminate against people with disabilities, and courts have said that includes those in recovery.
But in the last couple years, several proposed homes that sought those accommodations to increase occupancy from three unrelated people now in the city ordinance have came under fire from neighbors concerned about occupancy, parking, spacing, lack of supervision, illegal activity and public safety.
To that end, city officials crafted -- and the Lincoln-Lancaster County Planning Commission approved -- a proposed ordinance that would cap the number of residents living in a home at 10, require collaborative living homes be between 500 feet and 1,000 feet apart from each other and include one parking space for every two residents.
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Those reasonable and necessary regulations, however, did not satisfy critics, who argue that the proposed ordinance does not protect older, established neighborhoods, putting an unfair burden on the city’s core where most of the homes have been and are most likely to be located.
Attempting to force the proposed homes into newer neighborhoods, however, would be fraught with peril, creating controversy that likely would lead to court. And, the city should not be tinkering with the housing market at any time, much less today when rising costs and a lack of new construction are creating a housing shortage that will last for several years.
As for other concerns, the neighborhood associations' request for a clear, transparent system to evaluate requests by owners of collaborative living facilities who want accommodation allowing them to go beyond the proposed restrictions should be included in the ordinance.
And, the city should, as critics have proposed, establish some sort of enforcement and oversight of the ordinance that goes beyond simply responding to complaints. That enforcement and oversight, whether established in the ordinance or by policy, should alleviate many of the concerns about sober living homes.
Any neighbor could be -- or become -- a problem neighbor. Sober-living home residents are trying to get their lives on track. Helping them have a place to do that is a small contribution the community can make.
