MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. — Following a high-speed pursuit in Martin County this week, there are renewed concerns over a proposed sober home in Stuart.
WPTV reported days ago about a South Florida addiction treatment center trying to bring a 140-bed inpatient medical detox facility to Stuart near the intersection of Kanner Highway and Southeast Indian Street.
The site used to be an assisted living facility.
Martin County Sheriff William Snyder has been voicing concern over the proposal's impacts.
WPTV reported Thursday on an accused reckless driver who Martin County deputies said drove more than 100 mph the wrong way on Interstate 95.
Deputies said Cody Nance, 33, led them on a high-speed pursuit, which ended when he crashed into a water truck at a construction site in Palm City.
Perhaps as startling for Snyder as the chase itself was the reason Snyder said the Arkansas man came to the county in the first place.
"This is another case of someone drawn here by a sober home configuration," Snyder told WPTV's Kate Hussey.
Snyder said Nance told deputies he came here to be treated at a detox facility but found himself on the street.
Love and Hope in Action (LAHIA), a Stuart nonprofit, told WPTV weeks ago it's a problem they see often — folks leaving treatment centers and becoming what Snyder called "vagrants."
Snyder said after speaking to the nonprofit, he sees their point.
"They get dumped on," Snyder said. "Treatment facilities all over Martin County, when people are no longer candidates for treatment or they get kicked out, they just send them to LAHIA."
His concern comes as Stuart City documents show a local health and addiction treatment center is asking city commissioners to rezone a former assisted living facility's land and build an out-of-network, 140-bed sober home.
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Out-of-network means the home would also serve folks outside the local community.
"Those facilities bring outsiders to us, and when they fail, they invariably end up on our streets," Snyder said. "Our goal is to try to stop them from coming here in the first place.”
WPTV contacted the proposers of the sober home multiple times to share their side of the story.
A representative for the project told Hussey we would receive a response, but as of Friday, we're still waiting to hear back from them.
WPTV worked instead to get answers by going to an inside addiction source.
"I've treated many, many patients for that here in our community, but the out-of-network facilities are going to bring people from all over our nation, they’re going to be stuck here with nowhere to go," nurse practitioner Valerie Ferrara said.
Ferrara, who has more than 24 years of experience in health care and works specifically in detox, said she saw the same problem that Love and Hope In Action and the sheriff's office shared — folks who come for help and end up on the street.
"It's not a locked facility, so they can leave at any time," Ferrara said. "When they do, they don't have money, they don't have ID, they don't have cell phones, and my concern is that they’re going to find a fix. And what do they do to find that fix? They’re going to steal, they’re going to beg."
According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), a typical sober home averages less than 35 beds per facility.
One hundred forty beds, which is proposed for this project, is more than three times that.
"And with a facility three times the norm, that’s three times the amount of people leaving the facility," Ferrara said.
NIH data collected in 2020 showed Florida already has 1,037 active sober homes across the State.
A 2017 Palm Beach County Sober Homes Task Force Report showed Broward, Palm Beach and Treasure Coast counties accounted 34% of licenses across the state. The report also showed that 75% of patients treated in Florida came from out of state.
Snyder said he's determined not to push the needle any higher.
"I'm going to talk to our county commission and do everything I can to stop this phenomenon," Snyder said.
After getting delayed once, the project is up for discussion during Stuart City Commission's May 13 meeting.
Public comment is encouraged.