What happens when drug addict rents cottage in nice neighborhood

[Crystal H.]

This was a story in the local paper. It is a huge problem in Palm Beach County and growing. Has any other state seen a lot of this going on? Ever have this issue with tenants?

"After 83-year-old Jean Thomas pricked her finger on a bag of syringes in the garbage and watched her tenant drag an unconscious man — blue in the face — toward a car with the trunk open, she realized she was living a landlord’s worst nightmare. I was so naïve.

Thomas’ 24-year-old renter is typical of many young addicts who come from the Northeast and Midwest to Palm Beach County for treatment. She did a stint in rehab, relapsed and bounced around apartments before landing in Thomas’ cottage. She does not work. Her parents pay the rent.

Not long ago, heroin addicts lived in seedy neighborhoods or on the street. Then sober homes started opening nearby. To her west is a large, two-story sober housing apartment complex, around the corner, a single-family home was the site of a sober home until the property went into foreclosure earlier this year. Cities can’t stop them. Drug addicts in recovery qualify as disabled and are protected by federal disability and housing laws. That means cities cannot pass laws or zoning rules that restrict or interfere with addicts living in the community.

If you want to read the whole story you can find it here

http://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/news/what-happens-when-drug-addict-rents-cottage-in-nic/npqJ9/?icmp=pbp_internallink_referralbox_free-to-premium-referral

[Account Closed]

Some of that is just plain inaccurate.  Regardless of addiction and disability, illegal drug use is still illegal.  Illegal activities can still be prohibited in a lease.  You can evict a tenant for breach of lease.  Basic, basic stuff.  Not fun, and takes lots of monitoring and the cooperation of law enforcement, but no on is stuck with known illegal activities in their rental unit.