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The operator of six Utah group homes for recovering addicts and alcoholics is pushing back against state efforts to regulate him.
Riverdale resident Allen Andersen has sued a host of city and state officials in federal court under the Fair Housing Act, trying to derail recent attempts to license the suburban homes he offers to renters seeking "sober living" settings.
Forcing the homes to comply with new state rules, Andersen argues, amounts to discrimination against the disabled and threatens to shut down his business while rendering dozens of people homeless.
But the state Department of Human Services counters that enforcement of basic health, safety and management standards at such homes is crucial to protect recovering addicts when they are most vulnerable.
After hearing two days of testimony, U.S. District Court Judge Clark Waddoups on Monday ordered a temporary halt to any crackdown on Andersen and his for-profit company, NX Level Network, while lawyers argue over new regulatory rules the state adopted in 2014.
The lawsuit, filed in Salt Lake City, highlights a widespread need across Utah for viable living options for those fighting their way back from substance abuse, against a backdrop of shrinking stocks of affordable housing.
The NX Level homes in Draper, Sandy, West Jordan, West Valley City and Riverdale offer residential environments of mutual support. They are managed, Andersen said, by residents often fresh out of in-patient alcohol or drug treatment programs.
"They are the ones who run the house, not me," he testified. "They have an ability to live on their own, but whether they could do that and remain sober is another matter."
Housing up to 12 tenants at a time, Andersen said, his modest rentals offer no supervision or treatment, but clients insist they are critical to helping them stay clean. Residents share chores and expenses, attend support meetings together and keep one another on track.
"It's almost priceless to me," said Kathy Shields, a recovering alcoholic and mother of three who is staying at a NX Level home in Sandy. "Having someone to talk to has been very important to me."
Andersen's attorney, Ted McBride, calls the state's new licensing guidelines, ordered by the Legislature, "grossly overreaching" and a violation of privacy rights. The federal Fair Housing Act, McBride noted, defines sober-living residents as disabled, protecting them from discrimination.
"I find it both disheartening and hypocritical that the state would enact licensing regulations making it more difficult for people attempting to help themselves to secure adequate, affordable housing," McBride said in a statement.
Andersen's homes, the lawyer said, are akin to those run by Oxford House, recognized nationally as a model for peer-run, self-sustaining recovery homes — free of state regulation.
The new Utah standards, McBride said, would instead subject NX Level Network to licensing fees, staffing and training requirements. The rules also would force costly improvements to living quarters at Andersen's properties.
Those requirements, according to Andersen's lawsuit, would render the homes "economically unfeasible and operationally impractical."
In an interview, Andersen accused state officials of having "a vendetta against this population."
His suit also targets code-enforcement officials for cities where his homes are located over efforts to force him to obtain municipal business licenses.
Utah's new rules on sober-living settings sprang from rising concerns about potential exploitation of recovering addicts and alcoholics, said Diane Moore, licensing director with the state Department of Human Services.
Often coerced into treatment by family or a court order, in the fragile stage of new sobriety, such residents can be susceptible to financial or emotional manipulation, Moore said, as well as fatal overdoses if they relapse.
"We obviously don't discriminate against the disabled," she said. "We're actually protecting them as a vulnerable population according to the mandate of the Legislature."
Odyssey House runs four residential recovery facilities in Utah, with 73 beds devoted to sober living. Its CEO, Adam Cohen, said the state standards are "the least burdensome while also protecting consumers" and need to be applied across the board to such places.
"By the very fact that you call yourself a sober-living setting, you're part of the health care system," Cohen said. "It adds a perceived professionalism to the service."
Developed in cooperation with service providers, new licensing standards for recovery residences are the least restrictive of any imposed by her department, Moore said. "These are very open rules," she said, "with wide flexibility."
Among other things, Moore said, "we want to make sure the basic dignities of the dwelling are in place."
Since the agency gradually began enforcing the rules in mid-2015, 35 sober-living facilities in Utah have complied, she said, while a few others have shut down.
After what state officials said were many failed attempts to reach him, Andersen was slapped with an August cease-and-desist order, threatening criminal action if he did not seek licensing.
Though Andersen maintains his homes are exempt from regulation, Moore said they meet state licensing criteria because he operates as a business, charges rents above market rate and supervises some aspects of how his homes are managed.
"They're offering a service that costs money," she said. "It's more than housing. You're also buying a sober-living environment."
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