Coon Rapids shuts down sober-living facility

A Coon Rapids sober-living facility will be shut down Thursday after city officials discovered more than 50 building and licensing violations, leaving many tenants without a place to go.

Kristin DeGrande, neighborhood coordinator for the city, said officials found 44 city and building code, and nine addendum violations at Christian Restoration Services, a 12-year-old organization that provides housing for ex-offenders who are homeless and attempting to reintegrate into the community.

The violations included accepting sex offenders and people with violent behavior into the facility, failing to conduct criminal background checks on tenants and building violations such as blocked exits and expired extinguishers. Those violations earned the facility a nonrenewal of its rental license.

"The sheer volume of violations was overwhelming," DeGrande said. "It wasn't just the physical brick-and-mortar repairs that needed to be made, but there were also operational concerns that were very serious to our community and the residents who live in the community."

Marcell Garretson, executive director of Christian Restoration Services, said the facility was cited for minor issues in the past, but all were fixed. Garretson said he was "blindsided" by the dozens of new violations he learned about in a detailed letter this summer. He appealed, but said that at a September council meeting city staff and the Coon Rapids police chief were "making statements" instead of asking questions about the violations.

CRS has six homes in Minneapolis, and nine facilities altogether. Four of the nine facilities are female-only. The Coon Rapids location housed male tenants.

City staff renews the rental license each year and inspects the property for potential city and building code violations every other year. The last inspection was conducted in 2012, when seven violations were found and later corrected.

Under the addendum, the sober-living facility was "to provide persons who are chemically dependent and mentally ill a safe, affordable housing option with support services." According to the addendum, the facility could not accept sex offenders or people with several mental disorders or a pattern of violent behavior.

When people are screened and found to be registered sex offenders, Garretson said he finds them appropriate housing.

"These guys might have stayed here four, five, six days at the most, and when we found out they were sex offenders, we immediately got them out of here," he said.

Garretson said prospective tenants are usually referred by social workers and parole officers. A case manager will assess the applicant over the phone and ask about criminal history. The case managers conduct an initial criminal check during the phone call, Garretson said.

"Our heart is to help people — 'Come on in, it's below zero. We'll help you,'" he said of the people seeking a bed.

Another issue addressed in the council meeting was overcapacity. The signed addendum states the facility could not exceed 20 residents. He said there are only 20 beds in the facility; however they have a signed license for 25 beds.

According to the packet of documents, on June 30 there were 25 residents listed, then on July 1 there were 20 residents. A July 9 roster stated there were 22 residents.

"The roster probably had names that were in transition, so to speak," Garretson said of the changes in number of residents. "Their name could have been on the list, but they were not here."

Garretson expected a slap on the wrist and time to fix the 53 violations, but instead city officials ultimately gave the facility 30 days to vacate the property, a deadline that is up on Oct. 16. Garretson wanted at least a few months to help the tenants transition into other housing opportunities.

"We just felt that it was not a good fit for Coon Rapids," DeGrande said. "More than anything [the City Council is] bothered by the fact that this organization did not run the type of business they had proposed to run. They weren't providing all the services they had promised. They promised one thing and they were actually doing something else."

With help from his nephew, Watson moved to St. Paul and enrolled at a CRS in Coon Rapids.

"I always tried to quit, but couldn't," Watson said. "Nothing was going right in Chicago. When you are doing wrong, wrong just follows you."

For eight months, Watson lived at the Coon Rapids home and went through various treatment programs. He graduated from the programs, worked at another CRS facility, then returned to the Coon Rapids location as a chef.

Now, at 52, Watson's life is about to change again.

While many residents have found support at other programs and shelters, others are "back on the streets," Garretson said. Watson has odd jobs for now, but Garretson said Watson needs to find a full-time job to support himself.

Karen Zamora • 612-673-4647