Unwarranted House Calls
The Ventura County Mental Health Department has bowed to pressure from neighbors who do not want mentally ill people renting in their neighborhood.
The department has reportedly agreed to increase its staff visitation of a Thousand Oaks rental for recovering persons from one weekly visit to daily visits of two or more hours, and to park a county vehicle outside the home to let residents know that a counselor is present.
This is a violation of the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 which extends to disabled people the same rights to privacy and freedom in matters of housing that other citizens enjoy. Just as we can no longer discriminate against blacks, Jews, Catholics, Irish or any other group on the basis of race or religion, we can no longer deny the same freedom to disabled people.
The new residents of the home have demonstrated their ability to live independently and maintain stability. The likelihood of their being a danger to anyone is remote. Assigning extra staff and vehicle time to people who don’t need it, and are probably more comfortable without it, is an excessive and wasteful use of limited mental health resources and dollars.
LOU MATTHEWS
Ventura
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