Brandon Jacques And Costa Mesa Recovery Homes

PLUCKED FROM FACEBOOK
Over the past couple days the sad story Brandon Jacques as told on Vice.com has been floated around Facebook.  I "shared" it with folks on my timeline... then I took the time to read the full text and watch the two embedded video clips - total time, about 15 minutes - from the Vice.com story.

A SAD LOCAL STORY
Brandon's story has been covered by the local media in the past couple years.  You can read about it HERE, HERE and HERE.  In that last one, Hannah Fry's Daily Pilot piece from August 26, 2013, it mentions "Mary Helen Beatificato, Morningside's chief executive".  Well, she spoke at the recent marathon council meeting, so they're still here, defiling our neighborhoods and devaluing our properties.

HERE'S THE STORY...
If you go to the Vice.com story, HERE, you'll find a very frightening story about what is so very, very wrong with the recovery business that has infested our city.  Watch the video clips and read the full text.  Learn about the incestuousness of this business - how they bounce clients from one facility to another - many without the skills to properly manage the person's addictions.

IT WILL MAKE YOU ANGRY
Listen to both embedded tapes, in which one operator talks about it costing $75,000 per month for his Malibu facility and says, "If you go to the Four Seasons for a month it will cost you, what, $40,000 and what do you get?"

CITY OFFICIALS MUST ACT!
We in Costa Mesa better darn well wise up, because this "industry" is taking over our city.   We're told that, although city officials know where a few of these homes are, they're not acting.  In fact, the above mentioned Ms. Beatificato told us flat out that "You don't know where we are!" during that council meeting.   It's a $35 BILLION dollar a year business!  Do you suppose there's any "palm greasing" money in that big pot?  Just wondering...

TAKE THE TIME... MAKE SOME CALLS
Take a half hour... read the article and watch the two clips - they're not together in the text.  You owe it to yourselves and your families.  After you do, perhaps you'll understand why the City and residents are being sued for challenging them.  And, maybe, you'll decide this issue is important enough for you to get involved and contact the members of the City Council to demand they enforce the new laws they've passed.  Get angry that Newport Beach shuffled their recovery home problem across the border to Costa Mesa.  Just get angry, for goodness sake!