County Says 2 Rehab Facilities Are Unfit

County health care and probation officials removed dozens of recovering substance abusers from two Santa Ana facilities over the weekend, alleging the operator of the programs, Cooper Fellowship Inc., was no longer fit to handle such cases.

“At this particular point, it is no longer an approved program from the Probation Department’s perspective,” said John Robinson, the agency’s chief officer.

Robinson said about 40 drug and alcohol offenders, under court order to undergo rehabilitation or required to live in housing free of controlled substances, were removed Saturday from Cooper’s complexes on Euclid and Cooper streets.

The Cooper Street facility is a live-in rehabilitation center for drug and alcohol abusers, and the Euclid Street apartment complex provides subsidized “sober living” homes for recovering addicts, officials said.

The state licenses such facilities, which are overseen locally by the county’s Health Care Agency.

On Sunday, the probation and health agencies told an estimated 70 residents, including the 40 probationers, from Cooper’s two locations that they had to move to other county-approved facilities, said Chief Deputy Probation Officer John Bowater. Information on the other 30 residents was unavailable.

Bowater said some of the residents were taken to the new facilities, but others were simply given a list of addresses and telephone numbers.

Bowater said he did not believe Cooper’s license had been revoked. Health Care Agency Director Michael Schumacher declined to comment.

Wanda Hunsaker, a Cooper staff member, said employees were told not to talk to reporters.

Jackie Sweeney, 46, one of the probationers told to leave the Euclid apartments Saturday, said he had lived there nearly two years.

“We’re trying to make our lives better, and this isn’t helping,” Sweeney said.

Sweeney and a handful of residents, complaining they were abruptly evicted, returned to Cooper’s on Sunday, even though officials had told them not to. The residents said there were no vacancies in the facilities they were referred to.

They said probation officers began pounding on their doors about 6:45 a.m. Saturday and searched their rooms with drug-sniffing dogs. They said they were asked to give urine samples.

“The people here are clean,” said Dean Griffith, a manager in the 26-unit apartment complex where residents pay $280 a month and share rooms.

Robinson said that because of current investigations, he could not comment on why county officials determined Cooper’s facilities were unfit. He said all those affected were assisted in moving to other homes.

“We know that this is a disruption for them,” he said. “It is not something that they have collectively done, and we are trying to handle it in the least anxiety-producing way as possible. It was unfortunate, but it had to be done.”

Cooper Fellowship is a private, nonprofit organization headed by local businessman Jack Blackburn, who could not be reached for comment.