Editorial: Halfway houses are burdening neighbors

Saturday, Dec. 16, 2000 | 12:36 p.m.

Halfway houses help substance-abuse addicts turn around their lives, but a massing of these houses in a southeast Las Vegas neighborhood understandably has upset nearby homeowners. Clark County government officials have told the homeowners that they can't place zoning restrictions on the location of halfway houses because of federal housing laws that prohibit discrimination. Essentially the only restrictions on halfway houses are requirements that they have proper business licenses, yet neighbors say the houses sometimes have opened without these needed permits.

It's troubling that the halfway houses have proliferated in such a concentrated area. As the Sun's Kris Hill reported last Sunday, clinical-addiction professionals questioned the need to have so many houses clustered together. Gary Fisher, director of the Center for the Application of Abuse Technologies at the University of Nevada, Reno, said so many halfway houses in one neighborhood doesn't aid the addict in working toward a sober lifestyle.

The halfway houses' neighbors shouldn't have to shoulder this burden virtually alone for the valley, especially when other halfway-house operators suggest this isn't wise. It's a shame that federal anti-discrimination laws don't allow for reasonable zoning laws which, while ensuring that halfway houses be permitted, could at least prevent an excessive concentration of them.