Halfway house licenses urged

A bill that would further restrict halfway houses for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts was introduced Monday in the state Senate.

Senate Bill 319, introduced by Sen. Bill O'Donnell, R-Las Vegas, would require halfway houses to be licensed by the state. Clark County does require that halfway houses have business licenses.

The state Bureau of Alcohol and Drug Abuse would be responsible for licensing and enforcement, according to the bill.

A public hearing on the bill will be scheduled later.

Aside from a set of specific regulations that allows the state Bureau of Alcohol and Drug Abuse to certify the structure of halfway house programs, the state currently does not have a lot of authority over halfway houses.

At the local level, the county commission passed an ordinance Jan. 17 that required a separation of 660 between halfway houses.

The commission was set to introduce an ordinance March 7 that would have required halfway houses to be architecturally consistent with surrounding homes. The commission also planned to vote on an ordinance that would have restricted the number of adult occupants in bedrooms in halfway houses.

Both were held until May 2 after the commission was notified before the meeting that O'Donnell was going ahead with the bill.

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