Three conditional-use permits for recovery homes were approved by the Manitowoc Common Council last night (November 20th).
Supporters and opposers of the Lotus Recovery Homes, who requested the permits, packed the council chambers to support their side.
Many supporters like Johnathan DeBauche said that without these homes, they wouldn’t be alive today.
“I just want to say that these recovery homes are important to this community,” he explained. “I fell off-track when I left Lotus. I stopped working on the program that I was working on when I was there. Lotus taught me a lot. I taught me what family is, a brotherhood, and they’re very important to our community.”
Lotus Executive Director Terry Bosh says the homes on Marshall and Lake Street would correct a wrong from the past and want to help as many as possible.
“Their pasts are generally pretty bad, and they’re tired of it,” he lamented. “They want life change, and it works best in a community with others who want the same thing. Experience has shown the difference that housing like ours makes in the success of the recovery process. Our residents are not a threat to the community, in fact, the opposite.”
There was no opposition for the home on Marshall Street but those who opposed a home on Lake Street home said first that they do support drug recovery housing, but they feel that parking is being taken away with how many are staying at the home.
They also claimed that people are still using around recovery homes.
“From our living room window we have seen over and over again that the building that was once home to the keepers of the Lighthouse has turned into a magnet for the illegal drug trade,” one woman claimed.
Another man added, “We have a ton of questions and it’s really just kind of freaked out because this seems like the only meeting that we’re going to have to make a decision that’s going to impact a neighborhood.”
Manitowoc alderpersons mostly supported the permits, but Alderman Jim Brey gave a separate reason why he’s supporting it. He says a bill passed by then-Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker that requires an issue like this to be approved at a council meeting.
“The new law also requires substantial evidence in the record to support the denial of the CUP (Conditional Use Permit) and specifies that the personal preference or speculation of a person opposed to the CUP is not substantial evidence,” he explained.
He finished saying “this was passed by the state legislature and signed by the governor (Walker) which we have to follow.”
The recovery home on Marshall Street was approved unanimously but the home on Lake Street was opposed by Alderman *Mike Cummings after residents told him that they were against having it in their neighborhood.
*We apologize for reporting the wrong name of the alderman in the third district, it is Mike Cummings.
