Ohio Rep. Justin Pizzulli, a Portsmouth Republican, introduced earlier this year a bill in Columbus to tighten regulations of recovery homes.
Pizzulli’s House Bill 58 would require all recovery homes to get a certificate of need — essentially a state license that’s granted following a review to see if the housing is needed. This would be a change from the current system, through which private industry groups certify providers as following their standards.
The bill also would set up a process for the state to grant these licenses and to review any appeals for rejected applications.
Under the bill, all recovery homes would get annual inspections conducted by local alcohol, drug addiction and mental health services boards. These inspections would be funded by the fees that recovery home operators would pay with their applications.
The bill sets aside money to pay for these inspections — although legislative researchers say it’s unclear whether the amount would cover the full cost. This could be a problem for the ADAMHS board in Scioto County, for instance, which lacks a dedicated local property tax levy.
Officials from Portsmouth testified at the Statehouse in April in favor of HB58. Shane Tilman, the Scioto County prosecutor, cited reports from local police describing overcrowded houses and overdose reports.
“Anecdotally, it is my belief that the situation has improved on the availability of good housing,” Tillman said. “However, the bad actors are still there. I have yet to see the State bring any action to eliminate some of these bad actors.”
The bill has stalled, failing to advance besides receiving a couple of committee hearings. In the meantime, the legislature passed a different bill sponsored by Sen. Terry Johnson, a Portsmouth Republican, that makes it a crime to operate an unregistered recovery home.
Opponents say bill would stifle state recovery efforts
Addiction treatment advocates acknowledge there seems to be a unique problem in the Portsmouth area.
But, they say Pizzulli’s bill would have a chilling effect on the state’s overall recovery housing industry — which they said already struggles to provide what Ohio needs.
“If we would attempt to curtail it in one area, but do it on a statewide basis, we’ll just end up not having places where people can go to support their recovery,” said Theresa Lampl, the CEO of the Ohio Council of Behavioral Science and Family Health Providers, a trade group that represents addiction treatment providers.
Molly O’Neill, the CEO of Ohio Citizen Advocates for Addiction Recovery, called Pizzulli’s bill a barrier for recovery home operators that are doing things the right way.
But, she said she does think for-profit addiction treatment is a problem, since it creates an incentive for providers to cut corners so they can make more money.
O’Neill, who herself is a recovering addict, recalled a recent town hall in Scioto County. She said she picked up on an intense stigma in the community.
“There’s stigma everywhere,” she said. “It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, however, that when you do have a very big problem and the problem is sort of intensified in your area, that you would put up barriers to solutions to the problem.”
State Rep. Dontavius Jarrells, a Columbus Democrat, is a co-sponsor of HB58. He said he and Pizzulli are working on tweaking the bill to try to address input from critics. They plan to introduce a new version soon.
Jarrells said recovery homes aren’t as much of a problem in his district, since Franklin County has the resources to investigate and punish unscrupulous operators.
But he said he supports the bill because it levels the playing field for more rural areas like Scioto County by setting up a system to fund local inspections.
“I’m not here to shut down good providers,” Jarrells said. “I want more providers. We also want to protect people from the bad ones.”
The story was updated to correct the spelling of Justin Pizzulli’s last name on a second reference.