EVERETT — The city of Everett is considering a code change that would allow it more oversight of transitional houses, where boarders often include felons, addicts and the recently homeless.
City researchers have found little in the way of regulation for the houses, aside from rules linked to state or federal funding, Everett spokeswoman Meghan Pembroke said. The new proposal would make it easier for the city to track and monitor the locations, often marketed as halfway homes or clean-and-sober housing.
When Everett police and firefighters are called to those homes, they frequently encounter less-than-ideal conditions, Pembroke said.
“We’ve often found that the occupants of these types of houses aren’t sober and the houses have been modified without permits,” she said.
Two high-profile police investigations in the past year have involved such housing. In February, federal agents arrested Timothy Rehberg, the operator of several halfway homes, on suspicion of trafficking heroin and methamphetamine. The Everett man has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
In March, the manager of an Everett transitional house was sent to prison for raping and murdering a tenant after supplying the man with methamphetamine. The killing happened in December.
The proposed changes by the city deal with codes that are applied to family-style housing, Pembroke said.
The current codes allow for up to four unrelated adults to live together, Pembroke said. If the adults are disabled, the home can house up to eight people. Under federal housing rules, recovering drug and alcohol addicts are considered disabled, she said.
Any more tenants in one home requires a city review. The proposed changes would expand that requirement to any group seeking to house more than four unrelated adults in one dwelling, she said.
The planning commission is expected to take up the issue in September. It would then make a recommendation to the City Council, which could take action in the coming months.
Some tenants in transitional housing are under supervision by the state Department of Corrections. State supervision includes house checks in some cases, and by department policy, offenders in transitional housing are more likely to be subject to those checks.
The department works to maintain “a current knowledge of transitional housing possibilities, including referrals,” agency spokesman Jeremy Barclay said.
For former inmates, such housing is meant to provide a temporary home while they rebuild their lives. The stability of safe housing has proven to be a key component in whether offenders end up back in jail or prison, Barclay said Wednesday. About 6.5 percent of state inmates released each year say they expect to be homeless.
“One of our established goals is to get back to zero,” he said. “Housing, education and employment, those are the cornerstones to getting back in society.”
Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.
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