Ordinance would limit halfway house crowding

Kris Hill

Monday, March 5, 2001 | 11:36 a.m.

An ordinance designed to restrict the number of people living in halfway houses for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts may become a problem for students and others who want to maximize their space in a house, county planners say.

Moreover, Lorri Ahlm, owner of three halfway houses who began the drive for an ordinance to limit the houses, said the proposed law won't affect her.

The proposed ordinance would require that bedrooms smaller than 100 square feet have only one adult and bedrooms larger than 100 square feet be limited to two.

After inspection of her houses, Ahlm said, she determined that her homes fall within the proposed ordinance's restrictions. The bedrooms are more than big enough for the two people each one holds, she said.

She still plans to go to the meeting Wednesday, during which the commission is expected to hear public comment, then vote on the ordinance, she said.

A possible side-effect of the ordinance could be a restriction on students, for example, who have more than the allowed two people in a larger bedroom in order to make a living situation as cheap as possible.

"That is a potential problem" Chuck Pulsipher, county zoning administration said.

In that case, Pulsipher said, anyone who wanted to have more than two people in bigger bedrooms could apply for a special use permit, whether it was a group of students or a halfway house owner.

A lack of parking space is the only problem he thinks could prevent an applicant from getting the permit, he said.

"But as long as there are two parking spaces on the lot, it's probably going to be OK," he said.

The only problems the county has had with overcrowded homes, he said, have occurred when fraternities or sororities with up to 50 residents in a house have moved into a neighborhood without letting officials know.

This is the second ordinance that County Commission Chairman Dario Herrera has introduced this year dealing with group homes, an umbrella category that includes halfway houses.

The first ordinance, which passed Jan. 17, mandated a separation of at least 660 feet between halfway houses. It came as the result of complaints of neighbors of the Ahlms' three houses, which are within a one-mile radius, that there were too many halfway houses in their neighborhood.

Ahlm and her co-owners, mother Judy Nelson and brother Phillip Ahlm, recently filed a complaint with the Nevada Fair Housing Center, an organization overseen by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The complaint claims that the County Commission discriminated against recovering alcoholics and addicts by passing the ordinance.

The complaint is being investigated by the Fair Housing Center.