From: Terry Johnson Sent: Monday, April 4, 2016 5:34 PM To: *CI-StPaul_Contact-Council Subject: Sober living resolution Good Evening, My name is Terry Johnson and my youngest son has the pleasure of living in one of the sober living communities in St. Paul. Have a community like that has saved his life and he is now 6 months clean with a full time job in you community. If it had not been for this community our son would be dead. I have heard people say I don't want that in my area and I felt the same way until I visited the community and listened to the stories told about the lives this has saved. The sober living communities in St. Paul are well kept, fixed up, the yards are taken care of and the people that live there take care of there neighbors. You see there a re rules to live there. You must follow the house rules, you must go to meetings, you must take random drug test, you must do community service, you must get a job and you must be a productive member of society. Can you say that about your neighbors? I can't. I have heard said that these houses bring drugs to the neighborhoods and you are totally wrong it does just the opposite. These individuals don't want drugs anywhere near there communities and push it out and contact the proper people to get the dealers out. These individuals are very good neighbors they help take care of there yards for others, they shovel there sidewalks it is part of there recovery plan. My wife visited this areas prior to picking a house for our son and the houses that we thought were the sober living house were not and the one we didn't think were the ones are. They are well maintain and well taken care of. It is said these houses drive the property value down and that is not true. It is proven because of the investment in theses homes and how well maintained the are and the fact all the junk is cleaned up around these houses after they are purchased raises the value of the property not decrease it. Think of this as a tax payer you are spending hundreds of thousands of dollar with tax payers dollars rehabilitating these wonderful human beings. Someone's child and could be yours or your grand child someday. Don't you want your money to work the first time. Theses sober living homes have a huge success rate for survival and less of a chance for a relapse isn't that what we want for our kids. With this housing we save lives and tax dollars and we increase the value of the properties which increases the revenue for the city. Isn't that what we want for our community? I beg of you to not slow down this process or stop this very successful life saving process. It is deeply needed and deeply appreciated by my wife and I and most of all deeply appreciated by our son who is a survivor because of your sober living community. Please don't go backwards. I believe in this process and your sober living community so much that I am bringing the Mayor of LaCrosse to you community to see this life saving program because we are losing the battle with drug addiction in this area. I thinks its a wonderful idea as well as the Chief of Police. If you have any questions please contact me at 608-790-4571 Thank you for taking the time to listen and I would have no problem talking to any of you about our success with the community Terry L. Johnson