‘Sober House’ raises concerns for some Temple Terrace residents

TEMPLE TERRACE — John McGourty has lived in his home on Riverhills Drive since 2016, so he knew the house next to him had recently been remodeled. “Gorgeous,” he called it.

But after it was sold in March, he and his neighbors started noticing some unusual things, as workers traipsed back and forth into the home with drywall, 2x4s and, what McGourty thought was oddest of all — doors.

“This is very unusual activity for a house that was just remodeled to a pristine condition,” he told City Council members May 7.

Turns out, the house is being remodeled again — this time to accommodate recovering addicts as part of Oxford House, a publicly supported nonprofit 501(c)(3), which has a network of “democratically run, self-supporting and drug-free” homes, according to its website.

“That was a surprise,” said McGourty, and not a good one. McGourty said he was told there would be 12 people living there and says he and his neighbors have already met with some city officials, voicing opposition and wondering how Oxford House and a dozen residents was appropriate for a neighborhood in a single-family zoning district.

With more than 2,000 homes nationwide, Oxford House is broken up into chapters all across the country.

The concept is to provide a family setting to prevent relapse for recovering addicts. Homes are either all men, all women or in some places, women with children.

Oxford House of Florida is intending to modify the Riverhills location into its latest home, which appears to be men only.

It will be called Oxford House Bolts, presumably as a nod to the Tampa Bay Lightning. All of Oxford House’s locations in Florida have names, like Spanish Mackerel, Pineapple, Endless Summer and Kayak.

Bolt would be the second Oxford House in Temple Terrace. The first location is on 122nd Avenue and is listed on their site as Rip Tide.

It does not say how many people would be living in the house on Riverhills Drive.

A message left with Oxford Homes Florida was not returned.

The house was purchased by 7CVS LLC for $739,000, well over the $436,974 market value, according to the Hillsborough County Property Appraiser site.

While McGourty would prefer the house not be completed, city officials say they don’t think they can stop it.

There is, however, currently a stop order on the house because contractors didn’t have the proper permits. The contractor has resubmitted plans and they are currently going through review.

In the meantime, the city is looking into ways to appease McGourty and his neighbors.

But the new owners may have the law on their side.

“We looked at the zoning; there’s some case law that precludes our enforcement of the zoning the way we typically would want to enforce the zoning,” said City Manager Carlos Baia. “So right now, we are still looking at it. I just don’t want to give anybody the illusion that we have all these tools at our disposal to change the course of what’s happening. We’re continuing to look. But right now, the typical instruments we would use are not playing out.”

Baia says that the neighbors’ observations are correct — their homes are in a single-family zoning district, therefore it’s fair to expect that a single-family home would be used as a single-family home.

But Oxford House isn’t your typical business. In fact, it is marketed, in part, as a family.

On its website, it states that essentially each home is a family-setting comprised of recovering individuals that live together in an environment that supports recovery from addiction.

“Their business plan, by and large, is that they are a family, and they are to be treated as a single family that’s in there, and that is what’s creating some of our restrictions,” deputy city attorney Ernest Mueller. “They also fall under the Fair Housing Act and the ADA, which considers them to have disabilities, which means we have to provide reasonable accommodations. So, these are all the things we have to weigh.”

McGourty says he and his neighbors plan to continue the fight, even though the city’s hands may be tied.

He said it appears to him that the potential sober house is “using every loophole in the book” and that laws need to be changed.

If not, he hopes his crusade is a warning to others.

“I think the main thing that we’re trying to do is bring it to the attention of all the people in Temple Terrace,” he said. “Hey, I don’t know if you know this, but if it can happen to us, it can happen to you.”

Baia said the city will continue looking for ways to prevent Oxford House Bolt from being completed. If that fails, the city will look forward.

“These instances, where these exceptions are made due to potential federal or case law protections, that is definitely not the norm,” he said. “I want to make sure the public understands that we don’t have these types of requests all over the place. So yes, they’re definitely in the minority. And we just need to figure out, how do we prepare for the next one. We’re looking at this one still, but obviously looking to the future as well.”

John C. Cotey is the managing editor of the Tampa Beacon. He can be reached at jcotey@tampabeacon.com