Zoning board OKs group home for recovering addicts
POTTSTOWN »
A unanimous vote by the borough’s zoning hearing board has cleared the way for a six-bedroom house in the 300 block of North Charlotte Street to house eight recovering male addicts in a group home.
The building is already home to four recovering addicts, said Jacob Ballou, himself a recovering addict who testified about the program at the house.
Although Pottstown Borough Council had opposed the application on the basis of the parking variance being sought — the code requires four spaces for eight residents — that opposition became moot.
As the hearing got underway March 29, attorney Joseph McGrory informed the board that his client had obtained a lease at a neighboring property for additional parking and thus the application complied with the zoning code.
Without the need for a parking variance, that left McGrory with only the requirement of proving the home met all of the conditions for the “special exception” by which the zoning code allows group homes.
Ballou and his mother, Kerry Ballou, who owns the house, explained the rules the residents must follow — including twiceweekly urine tests, one of which is at random.
Unlike many group homes in the borough, which are sponsored by a non-profit or government agency, this home is entirely the construct of the Ballou family and all residents are voluntary. None are there as the result of a court-ordered recovery.
No treatment or counseling will occur at the site and those who fail are sent back to rehabilitation.
The house “is like a bunch of brothers living together, except they’re not getting in trouble,” said Jacob Ballou
“Addiction took 50,000 lives last year, more than guns, cancer or car crashes,” he told the zoning board in explaining the need for facilities like his.
He said had been in rehab previously, but he returned to using. It took a recovery houses to prevent a return to bad behaviors
Despite the rental of the extra spaces, some residents said they still believe parking will be a problem, and at least one said she shares the opinion posted on Facebook by a resident who said living next to a sober home on York Street is unpleasant and loud.
Two speakers, one a resident of the North Charlotte Street home, one not, spoke in favor of sober homes and said since the people who live there “are trying to get their lives back together,” they often cannot afford a car.
The house “is like a bunch of brothers living together, except they’re not getting in trouble.”
Jacob Ballou, resident and recovering addict