Therapeutic Place therapy heart neighbors file lawsuit over safety considerations, commissioner calls transfer ‘egocentric’

View from a room at the Lower Caper Fear Hospice. The fence visible on the right is owned by The Healing Place. (Daily photo by Port City / Benjamin Schachtman)

WILMINGTON – Two medical institutions have filed lawsuits against Wilmington City, City Council, New Hanover County, IS Design and Trillium Health Resources after the city granted permission to grant special use permits to build a treatment center for addicts, according to Council.

Related topics: Rock and a hard place: Getting to the bottom of concerns about The Healing Place treatment center

The Healing Place is a project proposed by New Hanover County and Trillium, which is responsible for managing state and federal funds for mental health and substance abuse issues in an area of ​​26 counties.

Since the zone district currently does not allow residential use, a special usage permit was required if the district were to advance the plans.

Despite the concerns and hours of public hearings and public submissions, the council ultimately approved the motion, but the vote to approve the special use permit was not a hasty decision. In fact, the city council has postponed the vote for several months several times in order to investigate further and hear concerns from opponents.

While there is little evidence to suggest that the region needs facilities to deal with the opioid crisis, the location of the proposed project, along with how it will work, has been questioned.

Concerns from neighboring companies

Lower Cape Fear Hospice, Delaney Radiology, and the New Hanover Health Network Children’s Learning Center all raised concerns about the location. Complaints were mainly due to the proximity to their own stores and the actual model of The Healing Place, which lacks professional security and allows residents to come and go.

“A common concern for the potential future neighbors of The Healing Place is safety. According to Gwen Whitley, CEO and President of LCFH, and an email circulated to parents by CLC, this issue is due to a number of factors: the proposed “wet protection”, the open door policy with no background check, and peer security “setup” , according to previous reports from Port City Daily

What does it all mean?

So-called “wet protection” is a protection that does not prevent people from being drunk or high. As for the open door policy, it means residents are free to come and go as they please – unlike many inpatient treatment facilities which are “closed” facilities.

For the peer security facility, this means that residents who have completed “higher levels of the program” act as security and are monitored by administrative staff.

In the lawsuit, the petitioners allege that in the only other housing complex that Trillium operates, nearly 200 people have been arrested for “crimes committed by the people who live in and use the facility”.

According to a spokesman for Healing Transitions, however, Trillium does not “operate” Healing Transitions, but instead pulls 34 beds together between the men’s and women’s campuses.

Additionally, Healing Transitions argues that the number of arrests listed in the lawsuit is incorrect.

A statement said: “The correct 2018 arrest numbers reported by the Raleigh Police Department and the City-County Bureau of Identification (CCBI) are as follows:

• In 2018, the actual number of arrests on the Healing Transitions men’s campus was 16 instead of the 172 incorrectly reported in the petition and reflected in the media articles below.
• Of the 16 arrests in 2018, only 2 were the result of an incident on the men’s campus. The other arrests were the result of charges brought prior to the individual’s stay at Healing Transitions. “

The neighboring daycare center, The Children’s Learning Center, which does not have a petitioner supporting the lawsuit, is mentioned in the litigation. According to the petitioners, the daycare center caters to children up to five years of age and approving the application would cause serious harm to the company as more than half of the parents using the facility would withdraw their children if the treatment facility allowed it.

This removal of children would, according to Anthony Stroud, one of the owners of the children’s learning center, “put the children’s learning center out of business,” the lawsuit said.

According to the motion, there is no question that the population would damage the petitioner’s property.

“Petitioner Delaney will also suffer abuse, trash and vandalism by attracting the growing homeless population that the group’s dorm will serve,” the query said.

Hospice officials made similar statements on the question, including concerns that the “group home / detox population” is at increased risk of the hospice facility being ransacked or robbed for drugs.

Delay in progress

On March 29, Delaney of MCD LLC and Lower Cape Fear Hospice filed a request for a Certiorari letter and judicial review.

A Certiorari letter essentially means that a higher court must review the decision of a lower court or in this case the decision of the city council and the granting of the special use permit.

Just because the lawsuit has been filed doesn’t mean it will slow down efforts to proceed with the establishment.

On Monday, county manager Chris Coudriet answered questions from county commissioners about litigation and potential delays.

“It hasn’t slowed or interrupted Trillium’s efforts to continue to get the final design and estimated maximum price. How long it will take in the court system, I don’t know,” he said.

District Attorney Wanda Copley said she expects any party on the losing side after the Supreme Court ruling takes the matter to the Court of Appeals for further scrutiny.

All of this can take several years to find a solution.

What are the actual requests from the petitioners? The first is a motion to the court to issue a certificate from Certiorari (this has already been issued). Next, the petitioners are asking the courts to overturn the city council’s decision to grant the special permit.

Perhaps one of the more recent issues is the need to keep the decision to approve the application, as well as any action taken by respondents to begin construction. If the suspension of the application were not granted, construction could begin while the courts decide the matter.

The commissioners react

The County Commissioners didn’t shred a word in expressing their frustration with the lawsuit.

County chairman Jonathan Barfield expressed frustration with the parties that opposed Healing Place.

“I am disappointed that the people suing the county or Trillium do not fully appreciate the fact that people in their community are dying every day from their opioid epidemic. And because of what they don’t want in their backyard, they are willing to let other people die to get what they want, ”he said. “The longer this goes on, the more lives will be lost in our church, and I just say ‘shame on them for every life that is lost’ because of what I consider to be their selfishness.”

(Note: The Lower Cape Fear Hospice responded but currently had no comment on its role in the lawsuit.)

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