Where Does A Group Home Business Thrive?

THE RIGHT LOCATION TO START YOUR GROUP HOME

There are 3 things you must understand about real estate prior to starting your group home.

1. LOCATION

2. LOCATION

3. LOCATION

I’m not kidding. The location of your group home or sober living or transitional house is the most important thing before you get headstrong on your goals. We opened up two sober living homes in Pasadena only to end up closing them a few years later because of one stupid zoning law we did not know about. Seriously, the city attorney filed close to 200 misdemeanor charges against myself and David for operating an illegal boarding home in their City. Pasadena (also known as the most snobbish city in the United States) has a zoning law that states no more than six persons unrelated by blood may live under one roof. That means if you have six tenants and a house manager living in a home in Pasadena you are operating an illegal boarding home. In my opinion, this is an unconstitutional law that Pasadena was just using to get rid of the sober livings in their city. A lot of ignorant people think sober livings bring in bad people who will just use drugs in their neighborhoods and devalue their homes. It’s called NIMBY (Not in my backyard). I grew up in Newport Beach and when our neighbors were going to sell their house to a sober living my own mother was quoted in the newspaper stating she didn’t want a bunch of drug addicts and alcoholics living next door to her. It would only bring down the value of the homes in the neighborhood and make it a lot less safe area. Hello... Your own daughter is an alcoholic in recovery. Don’t judge a book by the cover. Right?

This means for you it is very necessary to check out who your neighbors will be. Will your house and the tenants stick out like a sore thumb? Is there a homeowner’s association you will have to deal with? What are the zoning laws in that neighborhood? Is the home an R1 or R2 zone?

It is also important to think about who is going to be living at your house. Do they have their own cars? If so, is there enough parking, or will that be an issue? If they don’t have their own cars how far is the house from public transportation? How far is the supermarket, laundromat (if you don’t provide a washer and dryer)? We provide a washer and dryers at all our houses but sometimes the guys still prefer to go to the laundromat.

What else is important to your tenants/guests? Where will they work? Do they go to any program, outpatient treatment, or doctor’s office? If it is not convenient for their outings they may not rent or even stay long at your group home. Our house at Willowbrook is probably the least nice but because it is a block away from the metro the guys love it and prefer to live there over our other houses which are much fancier.