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Everett City Councilmembers: <br /> Page 2 <br /> are good tenants, and I have neither ever experienced any problems with them nor ever had any <br /> safety concerns. To ensure the clinics operate in a safe environment, one of the lease conditions <br /> I include regards the provision of a security officer during business hours. Safety is a priority for <br /> me. <br /> Not only is Ideal Option a good tenant, and thus a good business decision, but I also believe in <br /> what they do. Like many others during this time of the opioid crisis, I have a family member <br /> with an addiction. Through addiction treatment, like the kind provided by Ideal Option, he is <br /> doing so much better. He is employed. He pays taxes. He has returned to society as a <br /> functioning, responsible member. I know what recovery services can do for those that seek <br /> treatment. I know it can work. I purposefully engage in a business model that provides <br /> opportunities to others seeking treatment. I am also leasing part of the 2808 Hoyt Avenue <br /> building to M&I Recovery Services, LLC,who plan to use this location to provide job readiness <br /> training to veterans in recovery. <br /> Addiction recovery services come in many forms, including recovery lodging,job readiness <br /> training, and other services supporting recovery. The current restrictions on clinic and social <br /> services would serve to ban or limit some recovery services,while allowing others. For <br /> example, a veteran in recovery could live,work, and obtain job training downtown,but would be <br /> forced to travel elsewhere for clinical recovery treatment. This places an unreasonable burden on <br /> a person already struggling to recover. The moratorium allows public agencies to provide the <br /> same services that it prohibits private clinics from providing in the same location. Such <br /> inconsistent policies serve little purpose. <br /> Addiction recovery services are not the problem; they are the answer. Restricting recovery <br /> services in the Metro Everett area is misguided at best, as it does not serve the purpose of <br /> increased safety or reduced crime. If the hoped-for outcome is a reduction of negative behaviors <br /> by drug and alcohol addicted persons, such location restrictions do not support that goal. Clinics <br /> are there to help those seeking treatment. The negative behaviors of drug and alcohol addicted <br /> persons, easily observable in any city along the west coast, are,by and large, behaviors of those <br /> not in treatment. Restricting treatment opportunities has no effect on those who are not trying to <br /> obtain treatment. Restricting treatment opportunities cannot and will not reduce the number of <br /> persons with active addictions living in downtown Everett. Providing treatment opportunities <br /> can. <br /> Your new comprehensive plan calls for a diverse residential base in Metro Everett. Diversity <br /> comes in all shapes, sizes, colors, and income levels. So does addiction. Some of the people you <br /> govern have an addiction. Some of the people that will live and work in a revitalized downtown <br /> Everett are recovered or recovering. They need assistance to become or remain productive <br /> members of our society. The best opportunity they have to succeed,to retake control of their <br /> own circumstances, is with clinical treatment and access to social services. All of the options <br /> suggested by the Mayor's office would prohibit most addiction recovery clinics from locating <br /> and operating in downtown Everett at a time when such services are in short supply. <br /> schwa be.corn <br />