The $4 million property purchased by the Indian River County Hospital District two months ago to house a women’s sober home is encumbered by residential zoning restrictions that may make it difficult – if not impossible – for a nonprofit to operate such a facility in that location.
The hospital district told the County Planning and Zoning Department before purchasing the property that it would “not offer any type of medical or healthcare related services” in the structures at 620 and 650 10th St., just outside the Vero Beach city limits.
Kate Voss, a hospital district spokesperson, said the district plans to partner with a nonprofit which is “accredited with the Florida Association of Recovery Residences (FARR), similar to the Dynamic Life model,” to operate the facility, and added that the district “is currently working to bring forth a proposal for the board’s consideration.”
Dynamic Life currently operates a faith-based men’s sober home in Vero Beach, and gets about a quarter of its operating expenses from the hospital district. But at that sober home, Dynamic Life provides drug testing and mental health therapy.
In its most recent grant application to the hospital district for funds for the men’s home, it lists “Drug Tests $6,000.00. Mental Health Counseling Services $24,000.00,” and says the “free mental health counseling for our residents … has been priceless for their sustained sobriety in recovery.”
Since the 30 women who would stay in the proposed sober home for two months to a year would be coming there after leaving a detox or addiction rehab facility, the question is why the hospital district – if Dynamic Life is the model – would purchase a property where zoning bans provision of any type of medical or healthcare-related services.
Voss, who has been charged with overseeing the sober home project, demurred when asked whether the Hospital District intended to ask the county for a special exemption from the residential zoning restrictions for its new property.
“In response to your questions concerning the zoning, we had several conversations with the county about our intentions for the property to operate as a sober living facility, not a residential treatment center,” she said.
“Residential treatment centers require medical licensing and zoning. We were instructed to include that distinction in our zoning verification request application,” Voss added.
Were the no-medical, no healthcare-related service zoning restrictions disclosed to all seven hospital district trustees in September when the staff found out, before the district voted to move ahead with the $4 million purchase? Voss again demurred, and did not directly answer.
The trustees have yet to conduct a risk analysis on owning a sober home facility, but the staff has already spoken with two unnamed consultants about designing an RFP. There also may be grant funding available for the sober home, but according to Executive Director Frank Isele, the hospital district will need to hire consultants for that, too, as no one on the staff writes grants.
Voss said much has been accomplished already with the repairs to the buildings that formerly housed the Children’s Home Society group home.
“The landscaping has been done, the grounds have been cleaned up,” Voss said. “We’ve removed a lot of the unused and furniture that’s not going to, we don’t need and it’s really coming together nicely.”
The total price tag to renovate the two buildings, which contain dormitory-type units, a commercial kitchen and communal dining space, is unknown. Beyond the roof repairs, plumbing repairs, new HVAC units and extensive mold remediation, interior renovations will likely be needed to house the 30 residents the district wants to host there, as the current configuration is approved for 18 residents.