PENNSYLVANIA HOUSE HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE HEARING ON RECOVERY HOUSING MIDDLETOWN TOWNSHIP MUNICIPAL BUILDING LANGHORNE, PENNSYLVANIA Proceedings held at the Middletown Township Municipal Building, 3 Municipal Way, Langhorne, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, October 8, 2013, commencing at approximately 10:02 a.m., before Barbara McKeon Quinn, a Registered Merit Reporter and Notary Public, pursuant to notice. 2 PUBLIC HEARING, 10/8/2013 1 BEFORE: 2 GENE DiGIROLAMO, MAJORITY CHAIRMAN REPRESENTATIVE THOMAS P. MURT 3 REPRESENTATIVE BERNIE O'NEILL REPRESENTATIVE TINA DAVIS 4 REPRESENTATIVE FRANK FARRY 5 ANGEL CRUZ, MINORITY CHAIRMAN REPRESENTATIVE STEPHEN KINSEY 6 REPRESENTATIVE MADELEINE DEAN 7 8 ALSO PRESENT: 9 Melanie Brown, Human Services Committee staff 10 Ashley McCahan, 11 Human Services Committee staff 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 JAMES DeCRESCENZO REPORTING, LLC 3 PUBLIC HEARING, 10/8/2013 1 INDEX OF SPEAKERS 2 CHAIRMAN GENE DiGIROLAMO 4 BY REPRESENTATIVE FARRY 6 3 BY REPRESENTATIVE DAVIS 8 BY THE CHAIR 10 4 BY THE CHAIR (On behalf of Gary Tennis) 11 BY TED MILLARD 15 5 BY FRED WAY 21 BY AMY MERICLE 23 6 BY KEVIN DIPPOLITO 30 BY AMBER LONGHITANO 34 7 BY JOSEPH W. PIZZO 45 BY DIANE W. ROSATI 57 8 BY REPRESENTATIVE DEAN 64 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 JAMES DeCRESCENZO REPORTING, LLC 4 PUBLIC HEARING, 10/8/2013 1 THE CHAIR: Good morning, everyone. 2 Welcome to the hearing of the Human 3 Services Committee. And the first order of business I 4 would like to ask everyone if they would rise and we'll 5 recite the Pledge of Allegiance. 6 (Pledge of Allegiance.) 7 THE CHAIR: Okay. For the first order of 8 business, I thought maybe we'll just go down the line and 9 ask the members who are present here today and staff to 10 just say hello and let everybody know who they are and 11 what district they come from. 12 And we can start with Tina. 13 REPRESENTATIVE DAVIS: Good morning. Tina 14 Davis, 141, right next to Frank and Gene. Thanks. 15 REPRESENTATIVE O'NEILL: Good morning. 16 I'm Bernie O'Neill. I represent the center of Bucks 17 County, Upper Southampton, Warminster area and I go right 18 up to the river of New Hope borough, the 29th district. 19 REPRESENTATIVE MURT: Good morning. My 20 name's Tom Murt. I represent part of eastern Montgomery 21 County and part of Northeast Philadelphia. 22 REPRESENTATIVE FARRY: Frank Farry, 142nd 23 District from right here in Middletown. 24 I'd also like to thank Middletown Township 25 Manager, Stephanie Teoli, for hosting us here today. JAMES DeCRESCENZO REPORTING, LLC 5 PUBLIC HEARING, 10/8/2013 1 THE CHAIR: Gene DiGirolamo. I represent 2 the 18th District, which is right here in Bucks County, 3 and I'm the Republican chairman of the committee. 4 MELANIE BROWN: Hi, I'm Melanie Brown. I 5 direct the committee on human services. 6 REPRESENTATIVE KINSEY: Good morning. My 7 name is State Representative Stephen Kinsey, Philadelphia 8 County, 231st legislative district. 9 ASHLEY McCAHAN: Ashley McCahan, Human 10 Services Committee staff. 11 THE CHAIR: Okay. I'd like to welcome the 12 members and the staff and everybody who's present here in 13 the audience. I think we're going to have a really good 14 hearing today and I think it's an important hearing. 15 We're holding the hearing on behalves of 16 Representative Frank Farry and Representative Tina Davis 17 here in Bucks County. 18 And the hearing is really about 19 Representative Farry's bill, which is House Bill 1298, 20 and I think we're going to hear some really good 21 testimony today hopefully on the differences between 22 halfway houses and recovery houses and Representative 23 Farry's effort to try to bring some guidelines, some 24 types of state guidelines to the recovery houses that 25 have been popping up not only here in Bucks County but JAMES DeCRESCENZO REPORTING, LLC 6 PUBLIC HEARING, 10/8/2013 1 also all across the state. 2 I believe there are some -- some of them 3 are really good when they're run properly, they're really 4 necessary, but we've heard some stories and rumors about 5 some bad ones popping up and we'd like to somehow bring 6 some guidelines and give some relief to the residents. 7 So with that I'm going to open up and let 8 Representative Frank Farry, he asked for some opening 9 remarks. 10 REPRESENTATIVE FARRY: Thank you, 11 Chairman. House Bill 1298 is some very basic legislation 12 which amends existing law. 13 The bill will allow the Department of Drug 14 and Alcohol to promulgate regulations regarding housing 15 programs that offer assistance to people with drug or 16 alcohol abuse problems sometimes referred to as recovery 17 houses. 18 The regulation shall include, but not be 19 limited to, a definition of a recovery house, rights of 20 inspection, assignments of rights of inspection, and 21 penalties when violations of a departmental regulation 22 occur. 23 In order to receive any federal or state 24 funding, a recovery house must comply with regulations 25 promulgated by the Department of Drug and Alcohol JAMES DeCRESCENZO REPORTING, LLC 7 PUBLIC HEARING, 10/8/2013 1 programs. 2 This issue came to light because of some 3 matters that arose here in Middletown, and I know 4 Representative Davis has many more recovery houses in her 5 legislative district. 6 We know how important recovery houses are 7 in the recovery process, and by all means we want to 8 ensure those recovery houses that are run on the up and 9 up, you know, have the protections they need. 10 I think a greater concern are 11 unfortunately there's some folks that are running more so 12 fly-by-night recovery homes, and when they're located in 13 our residential communities it gives rise to great 14 concern. 15 So I look forward to the testimony here 16 today. 17 I think we have a broad base of panelists 18 that are going to provide some very important information 19 and hopefully we can move forward with this legislation 20 and help those that are in recovery with what they need 21 as well as ensuring they're properly protected. 22 THE CHAIR: Thank you. 23 We'd like to also recognize in the 24 audience Sean Schafer from Senator Tommy Tomlinson's 25 office. JAMES DeCRESCENZO REPORTING, LLC 8 PUBLIC HEARING, 10/8/2013 1 With that I'll recognize Representative 2 Tina Davis for opening remarks. 3 REPRESENTATIVE DAVIS: Thank you. 4 Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Rep Farry and 5 the committee members for holding this hearing. 6 I just want to let people know I came from 7 a local government background, so I've been dealing with 8 this issue probably for about eight years now. So I'm 9 very excited about the bill that you're going to be 10 hearing about today. 11 The current situation serves no one, not 12 the patient seeking recovery from drug or alcohol 13 addictions and not the conscientious providers trying to 14 provide beneficial services, and definitely not the 15 communities and the residents who are harmed by the lack 16 of oversight and safeguards. 17 The crash of the housing market in '08 and 18 the corresponding foreclosure and tax sales have enabled 19 speculators to buy homes cheaply, turn them into recovery 20 homes. They are able to charge a resident 100 to 150 21 dollars a week. 22 Do the math. If you have seven residents 23 in a home, the income per month is over $4,000. 24 I have many blocks that have two and three 25 on each block. Does anyone care to guess how that could JAMES DeCRESCENZO REPORTING, LLC 9 PUBLIC HEARING, 10/8/2013 1 affect the prices of the surrounding homes and a 2 potential buyer? 3 For me in my district, I can receive 4 anywhere from 1 to 20 calls or e-mails a week with 5 complaints. 6 The most recent one came just yesterday. 7 I would like to read a quote. I do not want to -- this 8 is the quote. 9 I do not want to sound hypocritical. I 10 believe that people deserve second chances, but it is 11 also -- but I also believe that there should be some type 12 of notification. 13 This is a major safety concern. Are there 14 background checks being done? Why are the neighbors not 15 notified? Unquote. 16 I asked my local L & I department whether 17 the applicant was required to show proof that they were a 18 recovery home, and they replied no. 19 It must be noted that there are many 20 property owners who are legitimately trying to help 21 people with drug and alcohol problems. Unfortunately, 22 for every good recovery home, we have ten that do not 23 monitor their tenants. 24 Rep Farry's bill is a common sense, first 25 step to fix this. The bill would give the state the JAMES DeCRESCENZO REPORTING, LLC 10 PUBLIC HEARING, 10/8/2013 1 authority to identify and regulate these recovery homes. 2 It would establish inspections and devise 3 penalties when the recovery homes fail to provide the 4 services needed and promised.